Preparations begin for Koizumi N. Korea visit

Koizumi's one-day visit to North Korea will be a first for a Japanese leader

TOKYO, Japan -- Japanese officials have begun laying the groundwork for next month's unprecedented visit by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to North Korea.

The Japanese leader announced Friday that he would make a one-day visit to Pyongyang on September 17 in an effort to smooth bilateral relations and possibly pave the way to formal diplomatic ties.

No Japanese leader has ever visited North Korea and relations between the two countries have often been rocky.

The announcement of the visit came after Japanese and North Korean officials met for high-level talks in Pyongyang last weekend.

The news also coincided with Friday's announcement by officials in North and South Korea of a breakthrough agreement on the construction of cross-border road and rail links. (Full story)

Kicking off preparations for Koizumi's landmark visit, a leading foreign ministry official traveled to Beijing Saturday for talks with North Korean officials there.

Hitoshi Tanaka, director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceania Affairs Bureau, was expected to sound out what the North Korean leader would be willing to do to improve bilateral ties, Reuters quoted Japanese officials as saying.

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Another team of Japanese officials is expected to travel to Pyongyang next week to begin preparing the ground for Koizumi's visit.

U.S. support

On Friday Washington gave its blessing to Koizumi's visit, saying it hoped it would contribute to a further opening up of North Korea to the rest of the world.

"We welcome Prime Minister Koizumi's diplomatic efforts to engage North Korea," an unnamed State Department official told the Associated Press.

"We hope that the prime minister's visit will lead to an early resolution of the important issues between the two countries and contribute to North Korea's becoming a responsible member of the international community," the official added.

For its part North Korea, with characteristic candor, welcomed Koizumi's planned visit as "an important occasion."

South Korean officials meanwhile have expressed optimism that it could push the United

States and the North closer to dialogue.

Agenda

Relations deteriorated sharply four years ago when North Korea launched a rocket over Japan's main island

North Korea and Japan face several long-standing disputes that have blocked the Asian neighbors from establishing diplomatic ties.

Among issues Japan wants on the agenda is the alleged kidnapping of Japanese citizens by North Korea.

Tokyo claims that 11 citizens were abducted in the 1970s and 1980s to train North Korean spies -- Pyongyang has denied the claim.

The North recently confirmed the whereabouts of six missing Japanese nationals, but none was among the eleven named by the Japanese as having been kidnapped.

Last Saturday Koizumi urged North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to respond "sincerely" to attempts to deal with the long-standing disputes between the two countries, including the kidnapping case.

It was the first time a Japanese premier had directly sent a message to Kim through government channels. Previously, such messages had been passed along by a third country.

Compensation

North Korea, meanwhile, wants compensation for Japan's occupation of the country from 1910 to 1945 as well as its forced conscription and forced prostitution for Japanese soldiers.

Next month, U.S. diplomats are to meet in Seoul with officials from both Japanese and South Korean to discuss the next stages of their dealings with North Korea.

Relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang deteriorated sharply four years ago when North Korea launched a rocket over Japan's main island.

Japan claimed North Korea test-fired a missile, but North Korea said the rocket was an experimental satellite launch.

Tensions flared again last December when a suspected North Korean spy ship entered Japanese waters and sank after an exchange of fire with Japanese forces.

-- CNN Tokyo Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon contributed to this report