DHAKA: Government-level talks between Japan and North Korea ended on Monday in Beijing on a positive note, with Pyongyang apparently prepared to discuss the Japanese citizens kidnapped by its spies decades ago.

At their first formal meeting in 16 months, diplomats from the two countries spoke on a range of issues over two days, including North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, officials said.

‘We had serious and frank discussions on wide-ranging pending issues of mutual interest,’ Junichi Ihara, head of the Japanese foreign ministry’s Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau, told reporters, reports The Straits Times.

‘We agreed to continue government-to-government consultations with the next round to be arranged through our embassies in Beijing,’ he said.

BDST: 1852 HRS, MAR 31, 2014