Japan and North Korea agreed at weekend talks in Beijing to launch three working groups including one to discuss establishing diplomatic ties, Japan's chief delegate to the talks, Akitaka Saiki, said on Sunday, according to Reuters. The talks could begin in late January, Saiki told reporters in remarks carried by public broadcaster NHK. Japan had proposed resuming normalisation talks while handling two other issues -- North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals to help train spies in the 1970s and 1980s, and Pyongyang's nuclear programmes -- in parallel through separate working groups, Kyodo news agency said. Saiki said North Korea had accepted Japan's proposal and that Pyongyang had promised to take steps on the abductees and other unresolved issues in a "sincere manner". North Korea has admitted abducting 13 people in the 1970s and 1980s to help train spies. Five have returned to Japan with their children, and Pyongyang says the other eight are dead.
