TOKYO: Japanese government and Red Cross officials left yesterday for talks in China with their North Korean counterparts in a rare meeting that might help improve frosty relations.
The delegation headed to Shenyang for the Red Cross talks about possible visits by Japanese to the graves of family members who died in North Korea decades ago, or missions to collect their remains.
The team includes Keiichi Ono, who heads the foreign ministry’s Northeast Asia division. The government talks will be held on the sidelines of the Red Cross meeting.
While there were few details of the agenda for the meeting which starts Monday, officials are hopeful that good discussions might help bridge the gap between the two nations, said Osaku Tasaka, head of the international division at Japan’s Red Cross.
“We don’t know exactly what kind of agenda items (North Koreans) will bring,” he said. One of the thorniest issues between Tokyo and Pyongyang is the fate of Japanese citizens who were kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 80s to train its spies. But it is not clear if government officials will discuss that in the upcoming talks, Japanese diplomats have said. AFP
