North Korea and Japan will hold working-level talks next week on normalizing bilateral relations.

Japan’s top nuclear envoy Saiki Akitaka and the North’s chief delegate to normalization talks with Japan Song Il-ho (photo) held talks in Beijing Sunday. They agreed to open two days of working-level talks in the Chinese capital from Wednesday.

The talks will mainly focus on preparations to re-launch a bilateral working group meeting on normalizing bilateral relations. The group is part of the broader six-party disarmament process.

Saiki told reporters that he informed Song of Tokyo’s position on Japanese abductees in the North and agreed to further discussions on the matter. Saiki stressed the need to further develop North Korea-Japan relations.

Sunday’s meeting was the first direct talks between the two countries in eight months.