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    BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The bilateral governmental talks between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Japan concluded here Wednesday without any major progress achieved.

    Song Il Ho, ambassador of the DPRK in charge of the DPRK-Japan talks, said after the plenary meeting on Wednesday morning that the two sides held honest and open-minded discussions, and got to know more about each other's positions during the 5-day talks.

    He said the two sides discovered that their differences are big, and that they need to work on to narrow the differences. He added Japan told the DPRK that it is neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the current situation.

    As for when the two countries will meet again for talks, Song said the two sides will continue to contact.

    The talks, started on Feb. 4, is in a three-track format covering such topics as the abduction issue, normalization of diplomatic ties, and security issue. Diplomats from both countries formed three groups carrying out discussions of these topics respectively.

    Vice Director of the DPRK Foreign Ministry's Asian Affairs Department Kim Chol Ho and Deputy Chief of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Kunio Umeda met on Sunday to air their views and stances on the abduction issue. Both agreed to continue the talks on the issue despite great differences between the two sides.

    Koichi Haraguchi, Japanese ambassador in charge of the Japan-DPRK normalization talks and his DPRK counterpart Song Il Hotalked about the normalization of diplomatic ties on Monday, but no full consensus was achieved.

    Tadamichi Yamamoto, Japanese ambassador in charge of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, and Jong Thae Yang, deputy chief of the DPRK Foreign Ministry's U.S. affairs department held talks mainly covering the nuclear and missile issue on Tuesday morning.

    Then Kim Chol Ho and Kunio Umeda picked up the abduction issue again on Tuesday afternoon and still made no major progress.

    This new round of inter-governmental talks is held after an interval of more than three years. The previous round was held in Malaysia in 2002.

    Previously, the two countries held a meeting in Beijing on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 last year, during which they agreed to set up three working groups on history, security guarantee and abduction issues. Enditem