BEIJING Japan and North Korea wound up two days of "very serious and heated" talks on normalizing fraught relations without agreement on Tuesday, but there were hints of progress.
"The talks neither broke down nor produced a major breakthrough," a Japanese Foreign Ministry official told reporters.
But another Japanese official hinted at progress in the third round of such talks this year and said North Korea was keen to end years of enmity.
"North Korea has a strong will to normalize relations with Japan," the second official said.
But, he added: "We cannot say we have made an achievement unless we have agreement on all issues." There was no immediate word on the details of the talks, which came hard on the heels of a historic visit to Pyongyang by U.S.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
A Japanese official said Tokyo had agreed to a North Korean request not to reveal details as the discussions were "substantive".
But he said the negotiators had "very serious and heated" discussions on Tuesday on issues of "great magnitude".
North Korean chief negotiator Jong Thae-Hwa also sounded a note of optimism.
"We have deepened our mutual understanding to a certain degree," he told his Japanese counterpart, Kojiro Takano, at the start of the second day of talks.
"I believe it is possible to reach an agreement which everyone can affirm," he said in front of reporters.
The talks in Beijing were the latest in a dramatic flurry of diplomatic contacts since South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung flew to Pyongyang in June for a historic summit with the North's "great leader", Kim Jong-Il.
(Reuter)