Japan minister regrets N.Korea delisting: Kyodo

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's finance minister called the United States' removal of North Korea from its terrorism blacklist as "extremely regrettable" and families of Japanese seized by Pyongyang expressed outrage and sorrow over the move, Kyodo news agency reported.

The United States, seeking to revive faltering denuclearization talks in the final months of the Bush administration, on Saturday removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist after Pyongyang agreed to verification measures of its nuclear facilities.

Taking Pyongyang off the list was held up by Tokyo's objections until the issue of the abduction of Japanese nationals -- an emotive topic in Japan -- was addressed.

Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa called the U.S. decision "extremely regrettable" and said he doubted that Washington had consulted its ally Japan about the move in advance, Kyodo said.

"I believe abductions amount to terrorist acts. I talked with the Yokotas over the phone a while ago and they were very shocked," Nakagawa told reporters in Washington, referring to the parents of perhaps the best-known abductee, Megumi Yokota.

Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said Tokyo would work with Washington to resolve the abductees issue and called for a strict system of verification of the North's nuclear facilities.

"Japan will do its utmost, in close cooperation with the United States and other countries concerned, to push forward Japan-North Korea relations, including the abduction issue, alongside the nuclear issue," Nakasone said in a statement.

"Japan believes that in order to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, which is the goal of the six-party talks, it is extremely important to build a concrete framework for effective verification," he added.

A White House spokesman said earlier that U.S. President George W. Bush had spoken to Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Saturday and reaffirmed support for Japan on the abduction of its citizens.

Nakagawa, a former head of a lawmakers group devoted to resolving the abductees issue, was in Washington for a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers.

Relatives of the abductees, who were snatched from their homes decades ago to help train North Korean spies in language and culture, expressed outrage and sorrow and urged their own government to do more to resolve the problem.

"I cannot help feeling empty because everything is decided somewhere beyond our reach. I feel completely helpless," Kyodo quoted Shigeo Iizuka, 70, who heads a group of abductees' families, as saying.

"As we have lost a great card for making progress on the abduction issue, the Japanese government has to hammer out steps that are just as strong" as the impact of the United States having North Korea on its blacklist, Iizuka added.

Teruaki Masumoto, 53-year-old secretary general of the family group, described the U.S. move as a "betrayal" of Japan and criticized the Japanese government for failing to persuade Washington mot to remove Pyongyang from the list, Kyodo said.

(Reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Sami Aboudi)