BEIJING (Kyodo) Japan could not get North Korea to agree Monday to an economic cooperation formula it presented as a way to make up for its brutal past, the two countries' chief negotiators in diplomatic normalization talks said after their meeting in Beijing.
"We cannot accept (a situation in which the discussions cover) only that method. There are all kinds of issues, so we did not reach an agreement," Song Il Ho, North Korea's ambassador to the normalization talks with Japan, told reporters.
Koichi Haraguchi, Song's Tokyo counterpart, separately said of Japan's proposal, "We did not necessarily come to a complete agreement, but this issue is important, so we came to make further efforts (in order) to gain a common recognition."