Talks between Japan and North Korea on normalizing ties ended after just 45 minutes today, leaving wide gaps as their top envoys blamed each other for the lack of agreement on key issues, reported the Associated Press. "I hope they understand the consequences," Japan's top envoy Koichi Haraguchi said of the North Koreans during a news conference at the end of the rocky two-day talks. No further discussion is planned in Hanoi, he added. No date was immediately announced for future talks. The first day of talks also ended abruptly, on Wednesday afternoon, when North Korean negotiators reacted angrily to Japan's insistence that they must resolve the outstanding issue of the abduction of Japanese citizens by Pyongyang in the 1970s and '80s before improving the countries' ties. Shortly after the talks ended today, North Korean envoy Song Il Ho demanded Japan take the first step instead of asking his country to make concessions. "It's time for Japan to move on," Song told a news conference at the North's embassy. North Korea can reconsider reinvestigating the abduction issue only after Japan lifts sanctions against Pyongyang over the North's missile and atomic tests last year, stops «suppressing» pro-North Korean residents living in Japan, and agrees to reparation for colonial aggression. Heading into the talks this morning at the North Korean Embassy in Hanoi, Haraguchi nevertheless insisted the furor a day earlier would not stop his side from pushing the abduction again. Japan is prepared to address any war -- SPA
