Japan and South Korea ended two days of fishery talks Tuesday without reaching agreement on specifics such as quotas for saury catches inside each other's 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones.
The talks are planned to resume in Seoul this week with the aim of reaching an agreement by the end of the year and allowing fishing to start Jan. 1.
If the next round of talks breaks down, an agreement by the end of the year will be unlikely, and there will be little hope that Japan and South Korea will be able to start saury fishing operations in each other's zones early next year.
During the most recent talks, the sides failed to agree on matters such as the permissible size of South Korea's saury catch off the Sanriku coastal area of northeastern Japan, negotiation sources said.
Japan banned South Korean fisherman this year from catching saury off the Sanriku region in retaliation for South Koreans catching saury in waters surrounding Russian-held islands off Hokkaido that are claimed by Japan.