Japan announced on December 14 it will lift the remaining sanctions, against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which include freezing food aid and negotiations on normalizing diplomatic ties, Kyodo News reported.

The announcement, made by Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki, sets the stage for preparatory talks on bilateral relations, possibly next week, said the report.

Actual provision of food aid, however, will be delayed because of lingering domestic opposition.

Japan froze both food aid and normalization talks as part of four punitive measures it took after the DPRK launched a multi-stage rocket over Japan last August.

Other sanctions, including suspension of charter flights and contributions to a multilateral consortium for providing nuclear power reactors to the DPRK, have already been removed.

The Japanese government will work to launch preliminary talks with the DPRK to prepare for full-fledged normalization talks, but will delay the actual provision of food aid to address domestic opposition, according to a Japanese Foreign Ministry position paper.

Kyodo quoted government sources as saying that Japan is waiting for Pyongyang's reply to its proposal to hold the preliminary talks early next week in Beijing.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party(LDP) endorsed the lifting of sanctions in a meeting earlier Tuesday, on condition that the government seeks approval from the party in deciding to extend food aid to the DPRK.

Japan and the DPRK saw a thaw in their bilateral ties after a visit to Pyongyang earlier this month by former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and a nonpartisan mission of lawmakers.

The Japanese mission agreed with the DPRK's Workers Party to urge their respective governments to resume talks on normalizing bilateral diplomatic ties.

On the same day, the Republic of Korea(ROK) government expressed its welcome to the decision made by the Japanese government, and hope it will pose active effect to the dialogue between Japan and DPRK.