North Korea hopes to normalize relations with Japan and the United States by February 2003 before South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung's five-year term expires, a report said Saturday.
Several North Korean officials met with Japanese government officials and political leaders in Tokyo in late August and told them Pyongyang hoped to establish diplomatic relations with the two countries while Kim is in office, Kyodo News agency said, quoting sources familiar with Japan-North Korean relations.
The North Korean officials are said to have direct ties with the ruling Workers Party of North Korea, the news agency said.
They urged Tokyo to push forward normalization talks and "alluded to North Korea's hope for establishing ties with Japan and the United States during Kim's term," Kyodo said, quoting the sources.
Japan, which brutally colonized the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, does not have diplomatic ties with North Korea.
The two sides are divided over Pyongyang's demand for compensation for the Japanese colonial rule and Tokyo's concerns about the alleged abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents.
Both countries during their 10th round of talks on establishing diplomatic relations on August 24 failed to agree on anything but to meet again in October -- TOKYO(AFP)
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