Japan and North Korea ended the first day of their senior working-level talks in Mongolia on Thursday evening and agreed to continue consultations Friday, a Japanese official said, with the thorny issue of Pyongyang's past abductions of Japanese nationals still in focus.

The discussions may gain little headway, however, given the likelihood of the North postponing any firm commitments as Japan enters a period of political uncertainty, with a Lower House election scheduled to be held in mid-December.

The meeting in Ulan Bator involved Shinsuke Sugiyama, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and Song Il Ho, North Korea's official in charge of Japanese affairs and ambassador for talks to normalize bilateral relations.