Japan and North Korea are set to hold informal talks in Shenyang, China, to discuss issues including when to reconvene a bilateral working group on the normalization of ties, Japanese government sources said Saturday. The talks will involve Song Il Ho, North Korea's envoy to normalization talks with Japan, and Shigeo Yamada, director of the Northeast Asia Division of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, the sources said, noting that they have already arrived in Shenyang. The two countries held the second session of the working group, under the framework of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs, in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, in September. At the meeting, the two sides failed to narrow their differences on bilateral disputes but agreed to meet as frequently as possible to try to resolve the problems, including the issue of North Korea's past abductions of Japanese nationals. As for the next working-group meeting, one source said, ''It is absolutely not in sight although there is a possibility that it will be held within this month. '' Song and Yamada are expected to try to arrange a schedule and to set the concrete agenda for the next working-group meeting. In an interview with Kyodo News earlier this week in Pyongyang, Song sounded a positive note on new Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's dialogue-oriented policy on North Korea, saying it marks a change from his hard-line predecessor Shinzo Abe and is ''worthy of note. ''
