Japan, N. Korea talks on abduction probe move forward: Komura

Separately, Kyoko Nakayama, minister in charge of the abduction issue, told reporters, ''If investigations will be done with the presumption that (the abductees) are alive and not dead, then we will be entering a new phase. There is ample possibility that survivors will be found.'' Nakayama, who has been insisting that the return of abductees to Japan be a prerequisite for the easing of sanctions, indicated acceptance of Japan's agreement to the partial lifting of sanctions by saying, ''With that as a leverage, North Korea is due to move.'' Japan is looking to have North Korea set up an agreed reinvestigation committeeby August at the latest, a government source said Wednesday.

By doing so, Japan hopes to prevent any delaying tactics on North Korea's part, while aiming to move quickly to prepare for monitoring progress and verifyingthe North's probe.

Stressing that Tokyo succeeded in getting North Korea to accept Japan's demands, Komura told reporters at the Foreign Ministry in the morning that Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has already been briefed on the working-level talksheld in northeastern China's Shenyang.

At the talks, which began on Monday, Japan and North Korea agreed that Pyongyang will try to complete the probe by this fall, and that Japan will lift two of its sanctions once the reinvestigation starts. However, the two sides fell short of working out details on the promised easing of a third sanction -- on allowing North Korean ships to enter Japanese ports for the transport ofhumanitarian goods.

Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau and Japan's chief negotiator at the talks, returned to Japan onWednesday afternoon.

Saiki will meet the families of missing abductees on Thursday afternoon tobrief them on the results of the talks.

''The next step will be to wait for (North Korea) to set up its reinvestigation committee and notify us when they have done so,'' said a senior ForeignMinistry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Asked if the negotiations could be considered a step forward, Komura said, ''Of course that was progress...We are now moving toward 'action for action,' although we are still not there yet.'' He also expressed expectations that Pyongyang's reinvestigations will include not only those officially recognized by the Japanese government as having been abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s, but also other missingJapanese nationals who are likely to have been kidnapped.

Prior to the talks, Komura repeatedly stressed the importance of progress being made so that the two sides could move from the stage of ''promise for promise'' over agreements made in their previous talks in mid-June, to ''action foraction'' -- a main principle under the six-party framework.

As for the failure to achieve consensus on how to proceed with Pyongyang's promise to cooperate in handing over Japanese radicals who hijacked a plane to North Korea in 1970, Komura dismissed concerns by saying, ''In the overall picture, the ratio (of importance) of the abduction issue (and this) is below 99 to 1.'' From the opposition camp, Social Democratic Party head Mizuho Fukushima welcomed the results of the talks, saying, ''It was good that a step forward was made. For Japan, it wasn't perfect, but I hold strong hopes that negotiations between Japan and North Korea will deepen.'' Meanwhile, a group of key lawmakers in the Democratic Party of Japan said in a statement, ''Considering the actions of North Korea, which has repeatedly betrayed international agreements, (Japan) must be extremely cautious. The government should engage in the negotiations in a firm and resolute manner.'' ==Kyodo