N. Korea calls for Japan policy shift, says abduction issue 'settled'.

BEIJING, Sept. 17 Kyodo

North Korea reiterated Monday that the issue of its abduction of Japanese nationals "has already been settled," urging the Japanese government to change its policy toward Pyongyang from one primarily focusing on the issue.

The country's official Korean Central News Agency made the point in a commentary it ran on the 10th anniversary of the signing of a landmark agreement committing the two governments to work toward normalizing diplomatic ties.

The Pyongyang Declaration was signed between then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a meeting in Pyongyang.

Monday's statement shows North Korea maintains the same position on the abduction issue under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, who took power after the death of his father and longtime ruler Kim Jong Il in December last year.

Japan and North Korea resumed intergovernmental talks in August for the first time in four years. But the statement will make bilateral negotiations increasingly uncertain because Japan regards the abduction issue as a top priority in its dealings with North Korea.

In the commentary, North Korea said the abduction issue has been settled due to its "sincere efforts."

North Korea maintains the position that it will implement the declaration, saying it was an instruction by Kim Jong Il to build closer ties between the two countries, according to the commentary.

It criticized "hostile forces in Japan" for persistently bringing up the already-solved abduction issue and abusing it for sinister political purposes.

On Sept. 17, 2002, Koizumi apologized for Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and vowed to offer economic assistance after the two countries have restored relations, while Kim Jong Il admitted to having abducted 13 Japanese nationals, saying eight of them had died.

After the summit, North Korea allowed five abductees to return to Japan in October 2002. But no tangible progress has been made since then on the abduction issue, a major obstacle to the normalization of bilateral ties.

Koizumi visited Pyongyang again in May 2004 for another summit with Kim Jong Il that led to the return of the relatives of the five abductees.

Japan has said North Korea abducted a total of 17 Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, and that it does not accept Pyongyang's position that remaining Japanese abductees in North Korea are dead.

Amid the impasse over the abduction issue, North Korea has argued recently that Japan should try to improve overall ties with the country rather than focusing almost exclusively on the abduction issue.

"Japan is abducted by the abduction issue," one official said.

Pyongyang appears eager to use the issue of recovery of the remains of Japanese soldiers and civilians who died in what is now North Korea around the end of World War II as leverage to improve relations with Japan.

An Aug. 9-10 meeting between the Red Cross societies of Japan and North Korea in Beijing led the two governments to hold working-level talks Aug. 29-31 in Beijing.

According to Japanese officials, they agreed then to put issues of interest to them on the agenda of higher-level talks that the two sides are arranging to hold in the near future.

Japan says the abduction issue will be included in the agenda, but North Korea has denied it had accepted the inclusion of the issue.