N. Korea Snubs Demands To Disarm

North Korea on Tuesday rejected demands that it give up its nuclear weapons program, marring the country's first talks with Japan in two years on establishing diplomatic ties, Japanese officials said.

Since the North admitted earlier this month that it had a project for developing nuclear arms, Japan has insisted that scrapping the program was a precondition for normalization between the longtime rivals.

The two days of talks, which opened Tuesday, have also been overshadowed by the issue of the North's abductions of Japanese in the 1970 and 1980s. The North's negotiators on Tuesday accused Japan of breaking a promise that five surviving abductees — now on their first trip back home — would be returned to North Korea.

During the talks, the North "completely denied" calls for the country to give up its nuclear weapons program, a senior Japanese delegation official said on condition of anonymity. The North blamed the concerns over its nuclear weapons program on the United States, saying the hardline U.S. stance was the "root of the problem," he said.

Another Japanese official added, however, that the North reiterated its willingness to try to solve the issue through dialogue with the United States.

North Korea's No. 2 delegation official, Pak Ryong Yeon, said Tuesday that Pyongyang wants the matter of the nuclear program dealt with as normalization talks continue, not as a precondition for normalization.

"Japan wants to focus on the abduction and security issues," he said. "But our thinking is, that if we work toward diplomatic ties, then the security issues will be solved along the way."

The first day of the ambassador-level talks ended Tuesday evening and, following a special side discussion Tuesday night on the abduction issue, were expected to go on as scheduled Wednesday. Tokyo has wavered over how tough a line to take with North Korea on the nuclear issue and has chosen to continue dialogue for the time being.

They admittedly made little headway Tuesday.

"Not much progress," Japanese delegation chief Kasunari Suzuki said as he returned from the talks.

The talks are the offshoot of an unprecedented Sept. 17 summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

But the nuclear issue and Japanese anger over the abductions has since soured the budding detente.

North Korea admitted to a visiting senior U.S. official this month that it was conducting a secret nuclear weapons development program in violation of a 1994 agreement. For Japan, that news was especially frightening because Pyongyang has demonstrated that it can fire missiles well beyond Japan's main islands. And with nearly 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan, it would likely be a primary target should war break out.

At a summit on the sidelines of the APEC meetings in Mexico over the weekend, Koizumi joined U.S. President George W. Bush and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in demanding Pyongyang end its nuclear program in a "verifiable way."

As they opened Tuesday's meetings, officials from the isolated communist state and its former colonial ruler vowed to "work sincerely" to improve relations.

But North Korean delegation chief Jong Thae Hwa acknowledged the talks would not be easy.

"Though neighbors, our countries remain distant," he said in his opening remarks. "There are differences between the two countries, including public opinion."

Revelations that only five Japanese abductees have survived from the 13 kidnapped by North Korea and used to train its spies in the Japanese language caused widespread anger in Japan.

The five survivors are now in Japan on their first homecoming, but Tokyo has said it will not return them to the North as originally planned and is demanding their seven children, as well as the American husband of one, be allowed to travel to Japan as well.

In Tuesday's talks, the North Koreans accused Japan of breaking a promise to return the five, the Japanese official said.

The Japanese side reminded the North that the five were "the victims of a criminal act" and stressed that the five returnees cannot freely express whether they want to remain in Japan because their children are still in North Korea.

North Korea's delegation official, Pak, played down the abduction issue, saying Pyongyang sees it as largely resolved, though some "details" still need to be worked out.

Relatives of the abductees also expressed dissatisfaction, urging Tokyo to push for a specific date for the children to return.

"We want them to set the date for their children in North Korea (to return) no matter what," Hidekazu Hasuike, whose son Kaoru was abducted in 1978, told Japanese television network NTV. Kaoru has two children in the North with fellow abductee Yukiko Okudo.

North Korean officials have criticized Japan for overreacting to the abduction issue, saying it was insignificant compared to Japan's brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 until its World War II defeat in 1945.

The two countries' track record on normalization talks is not good.

They have been held on and off for the past 10 years. The last round, held two years ago, broke off abruptly after North Korea angrily denied the abduction issue. Japan cut off its aid to the North that same year.