Japan, DPRK to Meet in Oct.

Japanese and DPRK negotiators ended two days of talks on normalizing diplomatic ties Thursday by issuing a joint statement calling for more negotiations, which included an agreement that the next round of talks will be held in a third country in October.

The DPRK team agreed to consider a Japanese proposal to provide economic assistance, not compensation, to make amends for the suffering inflicted upon DPRK during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

The proposed method would be comparable to that used when Japan established diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1965.

In addition to a further round of talks in October, the joint statement also called for diplomatic-level exchanges, as well as those between citizens and business leaders.

Since the two sides could not see eye to eye on whether the next round of talks should be held in Beijing, as proposed by Japan, or in Moscow, as suggested by DPRK, they will hold further talks on the matter.

People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/