Mon Oct 27, 4:21 PMWASHINGTON (AFP) - Senior US and Japanese diplomats will meet here to discuss the cases of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea during the Cold War to train spies, the State Department said Monday.
Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, will meet in Washington on Tuesday with Akitaka Saiki, the Japanese foreign ministry's director general for Asian and Oceanian affairs, spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Hill is "going to talk about the abduction issue and reiterate our support to the Japanese government and the Japanese people for seeing that issue resolved," McCormack told reporters.
Japan was upset with a US decision earlier this month to remove North Korea from a terrorism blacklist before the question of abductions was resolved.
On October 11 the United States struck North Korea from a list of countries which allegedly support terrorism after Pyongyang agreed to steps to verify its nuclear disarmament and pledged to resume disabling its atomic plants.
Japan has refused to give fuel to impoverished Pyongyang as promised under a six-nation disarmament deal until North Korea does more to account for Japanese nationals kidnapped by the communist state in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies.
Hill and his Japanese counterpart will also probably discuss the issue of fuel oil deliveries to Japan under the deal involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
"I'm sure they'll talk about -- touch on heavy fuel oil, making sure that the six parties in some way, shape or form meet their obligations," McCormack added.
McCormack said last week that the United States and its negotiating partners have a "high degree of confidence" they will meet their obligations to supply fuel oil to North Korea.
He suggested there was time to resolve the problem when he said Russia was next in line to deliver the oil. He declined to comment on reports that the US would ask countries outside the negotiations to ship oil to Pyongyang.
Under the February 2007 deal, North Korea was to receive one million tons of fuel oil or equivalent energy aid from the other five countries in return for disabling its plutonium-producing plants.
McCormack expected Hill and Saiki to discuss efforts for them and their counterparts to meet to obtain six-country approval of the verification steps that Hill negotiated during a visit to North Korea earlier this month.
But he had no idea when China, which chairs the six-party talks, will announce such a meeting.
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