BEIJING (Kyodo) A ranking North Korean official issued a warning Saturday about Tokyo resorting to strong-arm tactics, saying that while Pyongyang is ready for dialogue, it is also prepared to respond to any form of pressure.
"Pressure would drive the two countries apart," Song Il Ho, ambassador in charge of diplomatic normalization talks with Japan, told reporters at Beijing's international airport before boarding a flight to Pyongyang after talks with Japan in the Chinese capital.
"Dialogue and pressure cannot coexist with one another. We are ready both for dialogue and pressure," he said.
In five days of talks that ended Wednesday, the two countries failed to make headway over issues preventing them from normalizing ties, including the dispute over abductions of Japanese.
Following the failure of the talks to produce major results, calls are growing in Japan for the government to consider options to pressure North Korea.
"Both sides understood that the difference in our positions is quite large," Song said. "We will return to our country, and think about this from the viewpoint of how we can narrow our differences."
Asked whether the two countries can hold the next round of talks in the near future, particularly when the date for resuming six-party negotiations on the North's nuclear programs has yet to be decided, Song said the fates of the two discussions are not necessarily connected.
North Korea "is firm in the position" of keeping the two sets of talks separate.
During their negotiations last week, Japan and North Korea agreed to continue talking and to set a date for the next round of discussions through diplomatic channels.