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Japan vows to establish

ties with North Korea

TOKYO: Japan's Prime Minister Keozo Obuchi vowed on Friday to seek to establish diplomatic ties with North Korea in a key policy speech to the Diet.

"I shall further advance the dialogue (with North Korea) that began to develop last year, sincerely discuss the normalisation of diplomatic relations and humanitarian and security issues therein," he said.

Obuchi, faced by rows of empty seats because of a boycott by opposition parties, said he would also "strive to ensure that both sides can adopt a positive stance towards each other."

Strained ties between North Korea and its former harsh coloniser appeared to be improving after exploratory talks held in Beijing December 22 towards setting up diplomatic ties.

Japan also lifted all remaining North Korea sanctions, including a food aid ban, which were imposed after Pyongyang test-fired a medium-range missile over Japan in August 1998.

But only a week after the Beijing talks, North Korea said it had arrested a Japanese man on spying allegations.

Sixty-year-old Takashi Sugishima, a retired journalist, was detained in North Korea on December 4 for allegedly spying on November 30, said a report by Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Outlining his foreign policy, Obuchi said ties with the United States were the cornerstone "and I shall work to further bolster this relationship based on the unwavering trust between myself and President Bill Clinton."

The premier vowed to work with the Untied States in scaling down the US bases and facilities on the southern island of Okinawa, which houses 60 percent of the 47,000 US troops stationed in Japan and three quarters of the US facilities.

Relations between Okinawans and the US force have been strained since three Marines raped a 12-year-old girl in 1995. A year later Clinton agreed to return 20 percent of the land occupied by the US military.

Obuchi said Japan would build a new facility to replace the US Futenma Air Base on Okinawa. The prime minister said he would "spare no efforts to conclude a peace treaty" with Russia by the end of this year.

Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin and then Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said they would work to sign a peace treaty by the end of 2000 at their Siberian summit in November 1997.

Obuchi also pledged to improve relations with China, " major country in Asia."

Opposition parties boycotted the premier's speech to protest the ruling coalition's decision to ram through a law Thursday night cutting the number of seats in the lower house of the Diet.ÑAFP