The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday said Japan should make efforts to redress its past crimes before hoping for a normalization of bilateral relations.

The essential for settling the issues related to the DPRK-Japan relations is not the abduction issue but the issue of Japan's liquidation of its past crimes, said the DPRK's official newspaper Minju Joson in a signed commentary.

Japan has been pressing DPRK to provide information about the abducted Japanese citizens, who, the DPRK said, had either died or never entered its territory.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Minister Shinzo Abe said at press conference in early November last year that "prior to pressing forward with the negotiation for normalizing diplomatic relations, the resolution of abduction issue is extremely important to Japan."

"If there is no progress toward resolving this issue, there will be no progress on other issues," he said.

However, Minju Joson said "the present hostile relations between the DPRK and Japan originated from Japan's past crimes and the bilateral relations have not made major headway because of Japan's failure to redress its crimes."

The DPRK and Japan, which held two-way talks in Beijing on Dec. 24 and 25, 2005, agreed to take measures to ease the pains from the past and solve pending issues to normalize their relations at an early date.

The two countries plan to resume talks this month by conducting three panel discussions on issues of mutual concern.

Source: Xinhua