By Chung Min-uck
North Korea will hold working-level Red Cross talks with Japan next week in Shenyang, China, Japan's Kyodo News Agency quoted the Japanese foreign ministry as saying, Friday.
The talks, according to the report, will be held from March 19-20 and officials from the two countries' foreign ministries will be participating.
This upcoming meeting is a follow-up to the March 3 talks in Shenyang where the two countries' officials discussed the issue of Japanese abductees in the North, repatriating remains of Japanese who died during World War II and North Korea's denuclearization.
Among the issues on the table this time around will be whether the talks will lead to formal government-to-government talks between Pyongyang and Tokyo.
Seoul apparently remains wary of Pyongyang and Tokyo drawing closer because it risks undermining the trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo in checking Pyongyang's nuclear activities.
The North last week rejected the South's offer to hold Red Cross talks on setting up regular inter-Korean family reunions, and the Seoul-Tokyo relationship remains at a low ebb because of disputes over history.
On Wednesday, a meeting between representatives of the South and Japan failed to bring the two sides any closer with Japan not backing down from its original stance that apologies and compensation to wartime victims in Korea, including sex slaves, have already been made.
No future meetings between the two countries' officials are scheduled.
"Japan needs to closely communicate and cooperate with Seoul and Washington when it engages with the North," said a South Korean government official.
Meanwhile, North Korea, despite approaching Japan for talks, has been lashing out at the U.S.
Commenting on the U.S. State Department's spokeswoman Jen Psaki's recent comments that the latest parliamentary election in the North was undemocratic, an unidentified North Korean foreign ministry spokesman told the Korean Central News Agency, "The spokesman for the U.S. State Department was so impudent to say that there is no democracy in the election."
Denouncing Washington for its failure to understand the North's electoral system, the North's official reportedly said the U.S. is, "ingrained with repugnance toward the Korean-style socialist system."
Stressing that its citizens took part in the election, "to consolidate the people's power" while "fully enjoying their rights," the North's spokesman criticized the U.S. for "its dollar-almighty election system."
North Korea will hold working-level Red Cross talks with Japan next week in Shenyang, China, Japan's Kyodo News Agency quoted the Japanese foreign ministry as saying, Friday.
The talks, according to the report, will be held from March 19-20 and officials from the two countries' foreign ministries will be participating.
This upcoming meeting is a follow-up to the March 3 talks in Shenyang where the two countries' officials discussed the issue of Japanese abductees in the North, repatriating remains of Japanese who died during World War II and North Korea's denuclearization.
Among the issues on the table this time around will be whether the talks will lead to formal government-to-government talks between Pyongyang and Tokyo.
Seoul apparently remains wary of Pyongyang and Tokyo drawing closer because it risks undermining the trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo in checking Pyongyang's nuclear activities.
The North last week rejected the South's offer to hold Red Cross talks on setting up regular inter-Korean family reunions, and the Seoul-Tokyo relationship remains at a low ebb because of disputes over history.
On Wednesday, a meeting between representatives of the South and Japan failed to bring the two sides any closer with Japan not backing down from its original stance that apologies and compensation to wartime victims in Korea, including sex slaves, have already been made.
No future meetings between the two countries' officials are scheduled.
"Japan needs to closely communicate and cooperate with Seoul and Washington when it engages with the North," said a South Korean government official.
Meanwhile, North Korea, despite approaching Japan for talks, has been lashing out at the U.S.
Commenting on the U.S. State Department's spokeswoman Jen Psaki's recent comments that the latest parliamentary election in the North was undemocratic, an unidentified North Korean foreign ministry spokesman told the Korean Central News Agency, "The spokesman for the U.S. State Department was so impudent to say that there is no democracy in the election."
Denouncing Washington for its failure to understand the North's electoral system, the North's official reportedly said the U.S. is, "ingrained with repugnance toward the Korean-style socialist system."
Stressing that its citizens took part in the election, "to consolidate the people's power" while "fully enjoying their rights," the North's spokesman criticized the U.S. for "its dollar-almighty election system."
