Japan, N Korea to hold talks this month

Japan and North Korea will hold inter-governmental talks in China later this month, Tokyo said Tuesday, in the first face-to-face meeting between the sides in four years. A senior Japanese bureaucrat will lead the delegation for the meeting in Beijing, which comes after Red Cross societies from both sides met to discuss the repatriation of remains from Japan's occupation of the peninsula. "There are several issues between Japan and North Korea and after having discussions we have decided to hold inter-governmental talks soon," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters. "We decided that preparatory talks will be held on August 29 in Beijing" when the subject matter for future meetings will be discussed. "We have been working based on the principle of settling the unfortunate past and on restoring normal relations," he said. Fujimura said Tokyo had informed both Seoul and Washington about this meeting. Government talks would signal a slight thawing in often frosty relations and would be the first official contact between the two sides since untested young leader Kim Jong-Un succeeded his father in Pyongyang.