Dissension Marks N. Korea-Japan Talks

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia —  Japan and North Korea held a contentious round of talks Tuesday on normalizing relations but remained far apart on the key issues of North Korea’s nuclear arms program and Japanese citizens abducted decades ago.

The two-day talks, the first full-scale negotiations between the countries in two years, are under an international spotlight as pressure mounts on the North Korean government to scrap a nuclear arms program it has pursued in violation of a 1994 agreement.

On Tuesday, North Korea rejected Japan’s demand that it abandon the program, saying it could resolve the problem only in talks with the United States.

North Korea also rejected Tokyo’s demand that a firm date be set for children of five surviving abductees now visiting their homeland to go to Japan to discuss their future. North Korean officials said Japan had “broken its promise” to send back the five, and it demanded their return.

The two sides did agree, however, to start working-level talks on the abduction issue, an emotional topic for the Japanese public and its politicians.

The Japanese and North Korean officials devoted most of Tuesday’s talks to the nuclear arms program and the abductees.

Japan’s top negotiator, Katsunari Suzuki, said after the talks that “not much progress” had been made on the key issues.

Still, officials said talks would continue as scheduled today.

“Japan wants to focus on the abduction and security issues,” said Pak Ryong Yeon, the North Korean delegation’s No. 2 official. “But our thinking is that if we work toward diplomatic ties, then the security issues will be solved along the way.”

In Washington, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell warned that North Korea faced a grim economic future unless it complied with demands to end the nuclear program.

“No North Korean child can eat enriched uranium,” Powell told a news conference. “It is fool’s gold for North Korea.”