U.S. to raise abductions at six-nation talks: Armitage

The United States will work closely with Japan in trying to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted by North Korean agents during upcoming talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear threat, a visiting U.S. official said Monday in Tokyo.

"The U.S will stand squarely with Japan until all Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea are fully accounted for," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in a speech at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo.

"It is important" for the U.S. to take up the issue as part of its own interests during planned talks involving North and South Korea, Japan, the United States, China and Russia, Armitage said.

Later in the day, he met with representatives of an association of relatives of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.

The U.S. State Department plans to renew in April its list of countries supporting terrorism. The association urged Armitage to cite the abductions as a reason to keep North Korea on that list.

According to the relatives, Armitage said the department's decision is pending the results of the six-nation talks, which are expected to be held by the end of this month.

"I feel today's talk (with Armitage) was very meaningful," said Shigeru Yokota, head of the association. Yokota's daughter, Megumi, was kidnapped by North Korea as a teen in the 1970s. Pyongyang claims she is now dead.

The association also proposed that the U.S. raise the abduction issue with the U.N. Security Council as justification for sanctions.

But Armitage ruled this idea out, saying such issues should be settled under the six-nation framework, not the UNSC, the association said.