North Korea says Japan should abandon its hostile policies towards the North and implement the 2002 Pyongyang Declaration if it intends to contribute to bilateral relations and regional peace and security.

The North’s official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday made the comment on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the declaration.

The agency said that the North remains unchanged in its stance on the declaration and intends to implement it.

The North’s late leader Kim Jong-il and Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi held a summit on September 17th, 2002 in Pyeongyang.

After the summit, the two sides adopted the North Korea-Japan Peace Declaration, vowing that the two sides will resume talks for normalizing bilateral diplomatic relations and that North Korea will take measures regarding Japanese nationals abducted by the North.