PYONGYANG -- The North Korean Red Cross confirmed Monday the whereabouts of six Japanese among the 49 Tokyo has demanded Pyongyang search for, but the six are not among the 11 Tokyo says were abducted.

The confirmation came during the second day of a two-day meeting between the Red Cross associations of the two countries. Officials from each delegation said progress was made in resolving long-standing disputes between the two nations' governments but that there was no breakthrough on the sensitive issue of Japanese citizens who Tokyo alleges were abducted by the North.

The meeting was meant to pave the way for government-level talks next week.

"There were some results," said a member of the Japanese delegation, which included officials from the Foreign Ministry. "We did make a certain amount of progress."

A joint statement said that North Korea had confirmed the whereabouts of six missing Japanese nationals during the talks, but the Japanese official said the six were not among the 11 Japanese who Tokyo alleges were abducted and taken to North Korea.

In addition, four of the six have died.

"It is disappointing that there was no progress on the issue, but overall, the trend of dialogue has been kept intact," the Japanese official told reporters.

Tokyo's charge that North Korea abducted its nationals in the 1970s and 1980s to use them as spies or spy trainers has blocked the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations, along with Pyongyang's demand that Japan apologize and offer compensation for its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

The two sides did agree on allowing home visits by Japanese women who moved to North Korea with their ethnic Korean husbands.

The Red Cross societies want the visits to go ahead in late October, the joint statement said.

An estimated 1,800 Japanese women moved with their spouses to North Korea between 1959 and the early 1980s. Pyongyang's refusal to allow them to visit Japan -- it also imposes travel curbs on its own citizens -- has long caused friction with Tokyo.

The two sides had agreed on the visits, the first since September 2000, in talks in April, but had not set a date.

The two Red Cross societies agreed to meet again and will aim to set a date soon, the statement said.

The talks, the latest in a series of diplomatic initiatives by the reclusive North, are seen as a first step toward resuming discussions on normalizing ties. Such talks have not been held since October 2000.

At the beginning of the meeting, Hiroshi Higashiura, who leads the Japanese delegation, told the North Korean officials, "I believe today is a good opportunity" to discuss the alleged abductions. Higashiura serves as chief of the international relations department of the Japanese Red Cross Society.

A Japanese participant quoted the North Korean officials as saying the authorities have been checking on the whereabouts of the missing Japanese by examining resident records.

North Korean participants at the meeting, held at a Pyongyang hotel, included Kim Wan Sik, deputy chief of a residents record section at the ministry, and Hong Yong U, chief of a similar section at the committee.

Japan regards confirmation of the fate of the abductees as imperative for a resumption of negotiations on normalizing bilateral ties with the North.

Pyongyang meanwhile remains adamant about atonement for its colonization.

The two states, which have never had diplomatic ties, launched plenary talks for normalizing ties in 1991, but have remained apart mainly due to the abduction and compensation issues. The talks bogged down following the 11th session in October 2000.