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First published by Ohmynews on 2007-03-09 06

Bilateral meetings resume Thursday after sudden cancellation by Koreans

Late Wednesday the North Korean delegation at bilateral talks with Japan agreed to return to the negotiating table in Hanoi after abruptly canceling the afternoon session.

On Wednesday morning, the North Korean Embassy in Hanoi suddenly announced it was canceling the bilateral talks with the Japanese delegation on normalizing diplomatic relations.

The announcement came after a session Wednesday morning and surprised all local and foreign media.

At 2 p.m., the Press Department of the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs also confirmed the news, saying the next session would not take place as scheduled. No explanation or further schedule were given.

At that time a number of foreign reporters were still hanging around the North Korean embassy in Hanoi, hunting for news about the afternoon session, which was scheduled for 3 p.m. local time.

News from the Japanese embassy in Hanoi also confirmed the cancellation of the meeting. The Japanese delegation was informed by phone about the cancellation of the next session.

There has been no official explanation for these events. However, local and foreign media said the differences between the two on key issues are too wide to narrow down. Tokyo had shown firm positions on resolving the cases of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s in the morning session, while North Korea demanded compensation for the damage caused by Japanese troops during World War II.

In the session on Thursday morning, the two sides will continue to talk about the Japanese hostage issue as well as bilateral relations.

Koichi Haraguchi, head of Japanese delegation said to reporters, "We'll meet at 10 p.m. on Thursday morning at North Korean Embassy to have talks on Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea as well as on normalization of bilateral relations."