Japan and North Korea made little progress toward solving their problems in five days of bilateral talks that ended early this month in Beijing. The only agreement was to continue to talk.
The talks divided into three panels to discuss diplomatic normalization, abductions of Japanese nationals to North Korea, and the nuclear-arms and missile issue. The North Koreans remained inflexible in their negotiating stance and made a series of new demands, raising the stakes for diplomatic normalization. This is their favorite tactic.
Pyongyang, which is demanding the lifting of financial sanctions imposed by Washington as a condition for resuming the six-party talks on its nuclear-arms development, urged Tokyo to pressure Washington. It looks as though Pyongyang's participation in the talks was a tactic to delay resuming the six-party talks (with the United States, Russia, South Korea, Japan and China).