Food aid to North comes at a price

North Korea should first try to resolve pending issues with Japan before requesting food aid, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Tuesday.

During talks with Soko Shimabukuro, an Upper House member, and Osamu Yatabe, a former Upper House member who returned from a five-day trip to Pyongyang on Saturday, Nonaka urged North Korea to first halt its reported preparations for another test-launch of a ballistic missile.

Nonaka cited two other major problems that remain unresolved between the two countries -- homecoming visits and missing Japanese.

A third group of Japanese women married to North Koreans should be allowed to make a homecoming trip to Japan, he said. North Korea has allowed return trips for two groups of Japanese wives living in North Korea, but plans for a third group have been put off.

Pyongyang should also launch a probe into missing Japanese nationals whom Tokyo believes were kidnapped by North Korean agents, according to Nonaka.

"If Pyongyang deals with those issues, we are ready to launch negotiations between the two governments and dispatch a suprapartisan group led by former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama," he said. "The government will sincerely deal with North Korea's requests (for food aid)."

Meanwhile, touching on a joint statement issued from Singapore by foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea and the United States about "serious negative consequences" for North Korea if it test-fires another ballistic missile, a top government official said strict measures may be in store.

"At a time when its people are suffering from hunger, it is abnormal to increase defense spending," the official said. "It is natural for us to demand the country to restrain itself."