Bush says backs Japan on North Korea abduction issue

By Jeremy Pelofsky

TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - President George W. Bush pledged on Sunday that Japan's concerns about North Korean abductions of its citizens would not be ignored even as Washington moved to ease sanctions against the communist country.

Bush has begun easing restrictions on Pyongyang after it offered details of its nuclear weapons program, but the U.S. leader made a pointed effort to show his support for Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda by mentioning the abduction issue first at a joint news conference.

"I am aware that people want to make sure that the abduction issue is not ignored and that there are suspicions about whether or not the North Koreans will be fully forthcoming," said Bush, who arrived on Sunday for a G8 summit July 7-9.

"The United States will not abandon you on this issue," he said, noting that the nuclear negotiations were a multi-step process and that there must be "action for action."

The dispute over the fate of several individuals abducted to help train spies in Japan's language and culture is an emotional topic for many Japanese, as well as a major obstacle to establishing diplomatic ties between the two wary neighbors.

After North Korea handed over the nuclear details last month, Bush began a 45-day process to remove Pyongyang from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The decision sparked cries of outrage and anguish from the abductees' relatives, who fear chances of resolving the dispute are dimming, as well as charges by some Japanese media that the U.S.-Japan alliance would suffer.

Washington has been keen to reassure its closest Asian ally at every opportunity that it has not been abandoned.

For his part, Fukuda said that Japan wants to make progress on the abduction issue as nuclear talks proceed but added the dispute should not stand in the way of the de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

"So far, we have not seen any progress, but we need to engage in negotiations so that progress will be produced," he said in the same news conference.

"It should not be the case that there is no progress on the nuclear front just because there is not progress on the abduction issue."

Still, Fukuda said that it was important for Japan and North Korea to resolve the issues simultaneously.

Bush emphasized that the nuclear declaration by North Korea must be verified and leaders of the United States, Japan, Russia, China, North and South Korea -- the six parties in talks aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear program -- will discuss that in the coming days.

Christopher Hill, the lead U.S. negotiator, may begin consultations on these issues with his counterparts in Beijing as early as July 11 or 12, said Dennis Wilder, senior director of the National Security Council's Asian affairs office.

Bush said North Korea's accounting of its stockpiles and the recent public display in which Pyongyang blew up the cooling tower at its plutonium-producing reactor in front of Western media representatives showed some progress.