China president pressed NKorea on Japanese abductees: report
TOKYO (AFP) — Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to make progress in talks with Japan over the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea, a report said Friday.
Japan, a member of the international talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme, is pressing for Pyongyang to do more over its kidnappings of civilians in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies.
Liu Yunshan, head of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, conveyed Hu's message to Kim when visiting Pyongyang on October 30, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.
Hu said in the message "I hope to see progress soon in the Japan-North Korea relations" and "the improvement in the Japan-North Korea relations is beneficial to North Korea, too," the report said.
China, also a member of the six-nation talks, has previously said it would help Japan resolve the abduction issue.
North Korea admitted to the kidnappings in 2002 and returned five abductees and their families. It says, to Japan's scepticism, that other victims are dead.
The abduction issue rouses deep emotion among the Japanese public, with the abductees' families rallying support.
The six-nation talks reached a disarmament-for-aid deal with North Korea in February but Tokyo has refused to fund the agreement without progress on the issue.
Japan, which says abductees are still being held hostage in North Korea, has opposed to a move by the United States to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
