Japan, N Korea blame each other for breakdown of talks

Japan and North Korea ended two days of talks on normalizing diplomatic relations without progress on Thursday, blaming each other for their failure to solve thorny bilateral rows and falling short of setting the next date for the negotiations.

Koichi Haraguchi, Japan's chief representative at the talks, and his North Korean counterpart Song Il Ho said major differences remained over bilateral issues, including a bitter dispute over Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. "I find it regrettable that specific solutions were not reached for the progress of Japan-North Korea relations during the current talks," he said. At a separate news conference, Song also said that "a big gap" remains between the two sides and that was the reason "nothing was reached" in the negotiations.