Japan ready to resume talks with DPRK

Japan is ready to resume talks on normalizing ties with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiken Sugiura said Tuesday.

"Now that a reunion of returned Japanese abducted Hitomi Soga and her family living in the DPRK has been set for Friday in a third country, conditions have been met," Sugiura said at a press conference.

"The biggest obstacle for resuming the talks has been removed, " he made the remarks after a meeting of officials related to the normalization talks.

The policy of resuming normalization talks at an appropriate time after the issue of Soga's family reunion is resolved was adopted at the previous such meeting and the policy was reaffirmed Tuesday, according to Sugiura.

The Japanese government announced Monday that Soga will be reunited with her American husband, Charles Jenkins, and their two daughters Friday in Jakarta. It will be their first meeting since Soga returned to Japan from the DPRK in October 2002.

According to Kyodo News, Jenkins, listed by Washington as a US Army deserter, has refused to come to Japan for fear Japan will extradite him for a US court-martial. Soga was abducted to the DPRK in 1978 and married Jenkins in 1980.

Source: Xinhua