Japanese North Korean

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il seems desperate for better relations with Japan. But there are obstacles--including a man named Kim Jong Il. Born two years earlier than the North Korean leader, the other Kim Jong Il, a businessman in Japan, was a true believer in and fund-raiser for the North Korean regime until he visited the country in 1980. "I have been asked hundreds of times to change my name," the dissident Kim Jong Il said in a telephone interview from Kobe.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il seems desperate for better relations with Japan. But there are obstacles--including a man named Kim Jong Il. Born two years earlier than the North Korean leader, the other Kim Jong Il, a businessman in Japan, was a true believer in and fund-raiser for the North Korean regime until he visited the country in 1980. "I have been asked hundreds of times to change my name," the dissident Kim Jong Il said in a telephone interview from Kobe.

Japan on Tuesday lifted sanctions it imposed on North Korea in November, 1983, to protest a terrorist bombing in Rangoon, Burma, the previous month that killed 17 visiting South Korean officials. Japanese government officials may again travel to North Korea, and North Korean officials may enter Japan. Also lifted were bans on Japanese and North Korean diplomats' making contact in third countries.

Japanese and North Korean officials agreed Wednesday to continue talks on establishing diplomatic ties but were unable to announce plans for the start of formal negotiations. A Japanese Foreign Ministry official who attended the two sessions of talks spread over two days said the North Korean side showed a strong desire to improve relations with Tokyo. He said the parties agreed to meet early next year and will probably again hold the negotiations on neutral ground in Beijing.

North Korea says it is prepared to conduct a nuclear test unless the United States responds positively to its proposals for resolving concerns over Pyongyang's weapons ambitions, Japanese and North Korean sources were quoted as saying today. The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun said this had been conveyed to U.S. special envoy Jack Pritchard by a North Korean official in a secret meeting this month.

Japan and North Korea held a contentious round of talks Tuesday on normalizing relations but remained far apart on the key issues of North Korea's nuclear arms program and Japanese citizens abducted decades ago. The two-day talks, the first full-scale negotiations between the countries in two years, are under an international spotlight as pressure mounts on the North Korean government to scrap a nuclear arms program it has pursued in violation of a 1994 agreement.

North Korea will permit five Japanese kidnapped more than two decades ago to visit their homeland next week, although their children born in the Communist nation will not be allowed to accompany them, Japanese officials said Wednesday. North Korea has said the five victims, whose trips will be paid for by the Japanese government, can stay only two weeks. The announcement came as Japanese and North Korean officials prepare for talks Oct.

North Korea defiantly refused to abandon its nuclear weapons program Wednesday, leaving little hope of an early resolution in its standoff with Washington, Tokyo and Seoul. During two days of normalization talks between Japanese and North Korean officials in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, North Korea turned down Japan's request to end its uranium enrichment program.

Japanese warships firing warning shots and military aircraft dropping explosives chased two suspected spy ships in the Sea of Japan for more than 24 hours but gave up Wednesday when the vessels sped into North Korean territorial waters, the government said.

In a move that could bring much-needed aid to food-strapped North Korea, Japanese and North Korean diplomats agreed Friday to reopen long-stalled negotiations to normalize relations between the two countries. After two days of meetings in the Chinese capital, diplomats agreed to an agenda of ambassadorial-level discussions leading to an eventual exchange of diplomatic recognition by the governments in Tokyo and Pyongyang.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced plans Friday to travel to North Korea next month and meet with its leader, Kim Jong Il, in the first visit by a Japanese head of state to the secretive, authoritarian nation. Koizumi said that during a one-day summit on Sept. 17 he will strive for a "breakthrough" in establishing formal diplomatic ties between the nations. The visit is the latest sign that long-hermetic North Korea is opening, if just a tad, to outside influence.