Katsuei Hirasawa, parliamentary secretary to the home affairs ministry, resigned that post after drawing flak for a secret trip he made to China to apparently hold talks with North Korean officials about resolving the abduction issue, the ministry said Friday.

Criticism of the apparently unauthorized trip by Hirasawa and Taku Yamasaki, both Liberal Democratic Party members, dominated political circles Friday, with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi saying intergovernmental talks should be the only channel for bilateral negotiations.

But Yamasaki, who no longer has a Diet seat following his defeat in the November general election, told reporters upon returning from the two-day trip to Dalian, northeastern China, that he expects working-level bilateral talks between Japan and North Korea to resume soon.