Foreign ministry officials from Japan and North Korea will hold two days of talks in Pyongyang beginning Aug. 25, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
The talks between officials at the director general level, also announced in Pyongyang by the official Korean Central News Agency, were agreed to during a meeting July 31 in Brunei between Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun.
According to KCNA, "The talks will discuss all the matters related to establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries and outstanding issues of bilateral concern."
An editorial Monday in North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun daily said Pyongyang "is ready to make positive efforts to solve the issue of Japan's redress for its past and all matters related to the establishment of diplomatic ties.
"The two sides should sincerely hold contact and dialogue . . . to create an atmosphere of the talks between the DPRK and Japan and open a new phase of improving the relationship."
Tokyo's allegations of abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea and Pyongyang's demands for atonement over Japan's colonial rule of the peninsula have been stubborn sticking points in past talks.
Tokyo insists Pyongyang reveal what happened to at least 11 Japanese nationals it alleges were abducted to the North in the 1970s and 1980s. North Korea denies the allegation but has promised to look into it as a "humanitarian issue."
North Korea has called for Japan to atone and compensate for its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.