Tokyo and Pyongyang are set to meet on 7 March in Vietnam to discuss the setting up of diplomatic ties and to resolve pending disputes, including the matter of Japanese people kidnapped in the eighties and nineties.

Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) –Japan and North Korea are set to meet on 7 March in Vietnam to discuss the setting up of bilateral diplomatic ties and to resolve pending disputes, according to a Japanese government spokesman.

The decision to hold a meeting came during six-party talks on nuclear disarmament held in Beijing at the beginning of the month. According to

Yasuhisa Shiozaki, chief secretary of the Japanese cabinet, “Japan is ready to actively engage in negotiations on establishing diplomatic relations and to make further progress at the six-party talks. We will work to attain substantial progress.”

During the meeting held on 13 February, the nuclear powers accepted to supply Pyongyang with more than one million tons of oil if it shut down its nuclear reactors. And Washington and Tokyo agreed to discuss normalising relations with the Stalinist regime led by Kim Jong-il.

However, Japan made it clear that it “did not intend to lift trade sanctions and an import-export ban with North Korea until the latter showed goodwill to address pending disputes, like the return home of Japanese people kidnapped by North Korea in the eighties and nineties.

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