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Japan to Give DPRK 500,000 Tons of Rice
The Japanese cabinet and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Friday endorsed a plan to extend 500,000 tons of rice as food aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The cabinet and the LDP's decision-making General Council approved the plan separately in the morning.
Japan hopes that the food aid will boost the chances of a breakthrough in negotiations on normalizing diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Pyongyang, Japanese government officials said.
Japan and the DPRK resumed in April their normalization negotiations which collapsed in 1992. The two countries held two rounds of talks in Pyongyang and Tokyo, but failed to narrow differences on key issues.
The next round of normalization talks is expected to be held in Beijing later this month.
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