Japan links N. Korean aid to abductions

TOKYO, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Japanese leaders have offered to lift economic sanctions against North Korea in return for reopening investigations of kidnappings of Japanese citizens.

The offer was announced in a Sunday broadcast on NHK public TV by Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, reported Kyodo News.

''We will slightly ease the sanctions when methods of (North Korea's) investigations to find surviving (abductees) are set and we confirm the start of the reinvestigation,'' said Komura. ''It is action for action. Diplomacy does not progress in such conditions that 'you must act but we won't do what we promised to do.'''

Investigation of the kidnapping issue has been part of a recent negotiations between the two countries as well as the North Korean surrender of Japanese radicals who hijacked a plane to that country in 1970, argue the Japanese. Talks continue in the Chinese city of Shenyang.