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Friday, 25th July 2008
In General Japan News,

No N Korea aid until abductee issue resolved, Japan says

Japan has said it will refuse to provide its share of aid to North Korea until the neo-Stalinist state returns a number of Japanese citizens being held there.

Kazuo Kodama, a spokesman for the Japanese foreign minister Masahiko Komura, said: "Unless and until North Korea really comes to grips with this issue of abduction, there is no way for it to expect economic assistance from Japan."

The Japanese nationals being held in North Korea were abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s, reports Bloomberg.

Yesterday (July 24th), North Korea pledged to honour its commitments under a six-nation nuclear agreement, including the disabling of its Yongbyon nuclear plant by October.

Japan said that no steps had been made towards resolving the issue.

North Korea retorted that while 80 per cent of its Yongbyon nuclear plant had been disabled, only 40 per cent of the promised energy aid had been delivered.