Japan and North Korea have agreed in principle to launch negotiations in early April on normalizing diplomatic relations, resuming talks that collapsed in 1992, Japanese government sources said Friday.

The sources also said the agreement has prompted Tokyo to decide to offer 100,000 tons of rice to North Korea through the U.N. World Food Program, restoring Japan's food aid to the North for the first time in three years.

The accord was made at informal talks the two nations have been holding since December, when they held preparatory talks in Beijing on the normalization of relations.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki is expected to announce the assistance Tuesday, should the ruling Liberal Democratic Party endorse the plan, the sources said.

Japan will convey its decision on the food aid to North Korea by convening a second round of talks between the Red Cross societies of the two nations, possibly at the end of next week, they said.

But the government intends to emphasize that the food aid is being offered from a "humanitarian viewpoint" and is limited to assistance through the Rome-based U.N. body, instead of on a bilateral basis, the sources said.

The explanations are aimed at addressing lingering opposition among Japanese lawmakers over providing the aid unless Pyongyang cooperates in determining the whereabouts of 10 Japanese nationals allegedly abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.

Previous talks between Japan and North Korea on normalizing ties began in January 1991. But they collapsed after eight rounds in November 1992 when North Korea rejected Japan's demand that it provide information on a Japanese woman allegedly abducted by North Korean agents.

The two nations have never had diplomatic ties.

Japan has repeatedly said it would not resume food aid until progress is made on the alleged abduction and other issues, although it has restored dialogue with North Korea.

Even so, the government found it difficult to make progress with the dialogue as long as it continued to refuse to give the food aid while the abduction issue remained unresolved, the sources said.

Against this backdrop, Japan decided to offer the limited aid because during the informal talks, North Korea showed a positive attitude toward launching the full negotiations, the sources said.

North Korea has denied the alleged abductions. However, the country's Red Cross officials promised to urge relevant agencies to conduct a serious investigation of what they described as "missing" Japanese.

They made the promise when the Red Cross societies held their first talks in December in Beijing prior to the government-level preparatory talks.

During the Red Cross talks, Japan reportedly promised to consider North Korea's request for up to 1.2 million tons of rice.

The two nations renewed the dialogue process after Japan lifted its freeze on food aid and normalization talks in early December, removing the last of a series of sanctions imposed after North Korea on Aug. 31, 1998, fired a multistage rocket, part of which flew over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.