TOKYO, May 2 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING I...

TOKYO, May 2 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO)

Senior Japanese diplomat Mitoji Yabunaka is likely to visit China by and by for talks with North Korean officials onward bilateral matters focusing forward the issue of North Korea's past abductions of Japanese, diplomatic sources said Sunday.

Yabunaka, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, is count uponed to hold talks with the North Koreans in Beijing or elsewhere in China as early as this week to force onward them to send the families of five repatriated Japanese abductees to Japan, the sources said.

proxy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka, who is said to have connections with North Korean authorities, may accompany Yabunaka.

Although it is unknown who will take the part of North Korea, the Japanese sway is hoping First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju a fundamental note diplomatic aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, will attend the meeting.

Kang has been involved in discussing the abductions with Japan, and Tokyo is apparently hoping his attendance will further bilateral discussions.

Japan has been demanding that North Korea impel the children of the five turn backed abductees and the American husband of single in kind of them to Japan. on the other hand Pyongyang has repeatedly accused Tokyo of breaking its promise to have the five advance back to North Korea after their temporary homecoming in October 2002

The brace countries, which do not have diplomatic ties, greatest in quantity recently held negotiations in mid-February when Tanaka and Yabunaka privily visited Pyongyang and in late February in succession the sidelines of the six-party talks forward the North's nuclear ambitions, attended through Yabunaka.

The Japanese regulation has been seeking to take back talks at an early time and asked for a bilateral meeting separate from the multilateral framework which also involves China, Russia, southern Korea and the United States, the sources said.

The first working assemblage session of the six-way talks is scheduled to take place from May 12 in Beijing, nevertheless Japan does not want to rely forward bilateral contacts on the sidelines of the meeting for consultation focusing on the nuclear issue.

''We would not be able to clutch in-depth talks on the abduction issue'' during the six-party meeting, a senior Foreign Ministry official earlier said.

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