A Japanese government delegation arrived in Pyongyang via Beijing on Saturday to hold talks with North Korean officials for the first time since 2000.
The two countries will discuss a range of issues on Sunday and Monday, including the alleged abductions of Japanese nationals to North Korea and Japan's compensation for its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, in an attempt to get full-fledged talks to establish diplomatic ties resumed.
However, the chances of the talks making substantial progress in jump-starting the negotiations on normalized ties are slim, Japanese government officials said earlier. A series of ambassador-level normalization talks between Japan and North Korea have been suspended since October 2000.