Japan will seek to insert the kidnapping dispute with Pyongyang in the agenda of the upcoming six-party talks, the government's top spokesman said Monday.

"We hope to file a strong request on the occasion of these talks as it has been difficult to have the other side respond to bilateral talks," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a press conference, referring to the pestering row with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) over the whereabouts Japan's missing citizens in 1970s and 1980s.

Japanese delegates to the multinational talks would urge the DPRK to return to the bilateral negotiation table, Hosoda said.

Five Japanese citizens have stayed in Japan since their visit to relatives in 2002. The DPRK said the remaining eight sought by Japan had been either dead or never entered the DPRK.

Negotiations has come to a standstill since December when Tokyo accused the DPRK of returning phony cremated remains of a female Japanese abductee.

The DPRK agreed Saturday to restart the six-party talks in the week beginning July 25. However, it pointedly excluded Japan from positive factors to the resumption of the negotiation, saying Japan "has done nothing."

Source: Xinhua