North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan on Wednesday told Japan in a bilateral meeting that he would do his utmost to see Pyongyang resume bilateral negotiations with Tokyo, Japanese officials said.
Kim made the remark after Kenichiro Sasae, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, urged Pyongyang during a 75-minute meeting to resume full-fledged bilateral talks on the abduction and other contentious issues, the officials said.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the six-nation talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said in Tokyo the fact that the meeting had taken place marked "a certain degree of progress" as North Korea previously had been reluctant to talk with Japan.