Washington: The incoming US administration of President-elect Barack Obama is likely to assist Japanese efforts to resolve a row over Pyongyang s decades-old abductions of Japanese citizens, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso's special adviser on the issue said yesterday.

Kyoko Nakayama made the comments after a 30-minute meeting with Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, at the State Department.

We reaffirmed the importance of the abduction issue for both Japan and the United States, she said. I am convinced through the talks this time that the new government to be formed in the United States this year will also work together with us on the abduction issue.

Nakayama quoted Hill as saying that he has already thoroughly briefed staff members of Obama's transition team on US-Japan ties and the abduction issue, and that the new administration will undoubtedly strive to help settle the issue.

Japan and North Korea are divided over the number of Japanese nationals North Korean agents abducted in the 1970s and 1980s and over the fates of some of them, including whether they are still alive.

Of the 17 abductees on Japan's official list, five were returned to Japan in October 2002. North Korea said in 2002 that eight had died and two had never entered the country. Japan later added two others to the list to bring the total to 17.

Last August, North Korea promised Japan it would launch a committee to re-investigate the cases in September. But it subsequently suspended the launch, saying it first wanted to confirm the policy of Aso, who took office Sept. 24 after the abrupt resignation of his predecessor, Yasuo Fukuda.

Source : PTI