Pyongyang won't probe Japan abductions - daily

TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea has decided not to reopen an investigation into Japanese citizens its agents abducted decades ago, Japan's Sankei newspaper said on Friday, citing a source close to talks between Pyongyang and Tokyo.

Despite North Korea's removal from a U.S. list of terrorist states this month, Japan insisted it would withhold aid for its secretive neighbor unless it saw progress in an inquiry into the fate of Japanese spirited away by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s.

But North Korea had no plan to investigate further, the Sankei Shimbun said, in what could be a blow to Prime Minister Taro Aso's government on an emotive issue.

"Even if we were to set up an inquiry panel, we could not expect the Japanese people to be satisfied, whatever its findings," the paper cited a senior North Korean official as telling a Chinese official. "Ultimately, there is no merit in it for us."

Top government spokesman Takeo Kawamura said he was aware of the report, but the government had no way of knowing that it was true.

He said the government was not considering imposing further economic sanctions immediately. Current sanctions include a ban on imports from North Korea and on visits by its ships.

"It all depends on whether North Korea will deal with the problem in a sincere fashion," he told reporters.

"We are not at the point of deciding what we're going to do right now, first of all we want North Korea to keep its promises. We will strongly urge them to do so," he added.

North Korea returned five of the 13 people it has admitted abducting but Japan is pushing for more information on the remaining eight, plus a further four Tokyo believes were also victims.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; editing by Roger Crabb)