NK Envoy to Japan Talks Visits China

SHENYANG, China _ North Korea's chief envoy in bilateral talks with Japan on normalizing the countries'

diplomatic ties on Saturday arrived in this northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang in what many believe to be a prelude to the resumption of the normalization talks with Japan.

"I am here to meet our consul general in Shenyang," Song Il-ho told reporters after arriving at the airport from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

The North Korean diplomat refused to elaborate on his visit. He was accompanied by several officials.

It was also later confirmed that Shigeo Yamada, director of the Northeast Asia Division at Japan's Foreign Ministry, arrived in Shenyang Saturday afternoon.

Pyongyang and Tokyo have held two rounds of normalization talks this year under a six-nation accord that binds the communist North to disable its key nuclear facilities and declare all its nuclear programs in exchange for energy assistance and political benefits.

The talks have yielded little progress with Japan refusing to improve its ties with the North until the communist nation releases all Japanese citizens believed kidnapped decades ago.

Pyongyang admitted in 2002 to kidnapping about a dozen Japanese citizens in the 1960s and 1970s, and later allowed five survivors and their family members, as well as the family members of the abductees said to have died, to return to Japan.

Tokyo, however, believes many more may have been abducted, with many of them still being held in the communist nation.

(Yonhap)