Senior Japanese and North Korean officials discussed specifics Tuesday of Pyongyang's promised establishment of a new body that will look into its past abductions of Japanese nationals.

During the first part of their meeting in Beijing, Song Il Ho, North Korea's top negotiator, said he would explain the organizational structure of a committee to reinvestigate the whereabouts of Japanese who Tokyo believes were abducted by Pyongyang decades ago.

But at the outset of the meeting at the North Korean Embassy, the two countries clashed over Pyongyang's launch of two short-range ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast Sunday.