Japan, N Korea meet for second day of talks

Japan and North Korea met Thursday for a second day of talks, a Japanese official said, as the countries seek to find enough common ground for possible future discussions at a higher level. Diplomats from the two countries began meeting at North Korea's embassy in Beijing shortly before midday, according to the Japanese official, who declined to be named. The two sides held their first face-to-face encounter in four years the day before at Japan's embassy. Diplomats met for nearly three hours and engaged in a "matter-of-fact and frank" exchange of opinions, according to a Japanese briefing Wednesday. Japan has characterised the talks in Beijing by relatively junior officials as meant to prepare for possible higher-level meetings at a later date to address key issues that have prevented the countries from establishing formal diplomatic relations. The current meetings are being closely watched as diplomats and experts try to ascertain whether North Korea's foreign policy could change under new leader Kim Jong-Un. Kim took over leadership of the communist state after his father Kim Jong-Il died in December. Japan is keen to further discuss the fate of citizens abducted by North Korean agents, amid suspicions in Japan that Pyongyang has failed to provide all the information it has. Secretive North Korea admitted in 2002 its agents kidnapped Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to help train spies by teaching Japanese language and culture, and later allowed five of them and their families to return home. It said another eight died, though many in Japan hold out hope they remain alive. There are also suspicions that Pyongyang's agents abducted more Japanese than was admitted. Japan says North Korea agreed to reopen investigations into the fate of abducted Japanese when the two sides last met in 2008. Jin Matsubara, Japan's state minister for the abduction issue, said last week that progress could yield big dividends in humanitarian aid. Impoverished yet highly militarised North Korea remains suspicious of Japan, which is a close military ally of the United States. Pyongyang also regularly blasts Japan for its colonisation of the Korean peninsula in the first half of the 20th century and treatment of ethnic Koreans in Japan. Another pending issue involves the remains of Japanese who died in North Korea during and shortly after World War II. The remains of about 13,000 have been sent back but about 21,000 are believed still buried there.