Japan retains N Korea sanctions

2006-11-01 13:07

Tokyo - Japan will keep up its sanctions against North Korea despite the communist state's decision to return to six-nation talks on nuclear disarmament, senior ministers said on Wednesday.

They said Japan would only lift the measures, which include a ban on all North Korean imports, if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear programme completely.

"We still don't know the conditions" for North Korea's return to the talks, foreign minister Taro Aso told a parliamentary committee.

"We can't welcome the resumption of the six-way talks with open arms. Basically we will continue with the sanctions," he said.

North Korea said on Wednesday it would return to the disarmament talks with South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia on the condition that the issue of lifting US financial sanctions is settled during the negotiations.

The decision came just three weeks after the communist state stunned the world with its first atomic test.

Chief cabinet secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the top government spokesperson, said Japan will not lift its sanctions unless North Korea abandons all its nuclear programmes.

"Unless we are sure North Korea abides by (the UN security council resolution 1718 and the joint statement adopted at the six-nation talks in September last year), we will continue with the sanctions," Shiozaki said.

He said Japan would demand that the issue of Japanese civilians abducted by North Korea be taken up at the six-party talks.

- AFP