Japan on North Korea delisting: official calm, some upset

By Linda Sieg and Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan pledged on Sunday to try to resolve an emotive dispute with North Korea over citizens abducted by Pyongyang decades ago, after Washington took the secretive communist state off its terrorist blacklist.

The United States, seeking to revive faltering talks on denuclearization by North Korea, removed it from the list after Pyongyang agreed to measures to verify its nuclear facilities.

The step had been held up by Tokyo's objections until the issue of the abduction of Japanese nationals was addressed.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said Japan was committed to making progress on the abductees dispute.

"The Japanese government will proceed with strong determination so that this matter is not left behind," he told reporters.

Prime Minister Taro Aso denied Tokyo would have less leverage in trying to settle the abductees feud.

"We can talk thoroughly about the abductions in future negotiations," he was quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency.

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said in a statement 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 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 said.

The six-party talks group the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

In a sign of how touchy the topic is for Tokyo, Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, a hard-liner on North Korea, called the U.S. decision "extremely regrettable" and said he doubted Washington consulted its ally Japan about the move in advance.

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"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.

Kyodo said last week that Washington had alerted Tokyo to its looming decision, and a White House spokesman said U.S. President George W. Bush spoke to Aso on Saturday and reaffirmed support for Japan on the abduction of its citizens.

But Nakagawa said if no progress is made at the six-party talks, North Korea would be seen as "making a mockery of" the United States.