TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan may provide help to North Korea in scrapping its nuclear programme but it still refuses to give energy assistance because of a feud over abducted Japanese citizens, the top government spokesman said on Tuesday.
Japan has refused to provide energy aid despite Washington's decision last week to remove Pyongyang from a U.S. terrorism blacklist after the two countries agreed on the verification measures for its nuclear programme.
But Tokyo is under pressure from Seoul, which wants Japan to join South Korea, China, Russia and the United States in providing energy aid promised under a six-way agreement to end Pyongyang's nuclear programmes.
North Korea said on Tuesday Japan was no longer qualified to be involved in six-way negotiations, but the government in Tokyo faces pressure at home to find the fate of 12 people Japan lists as missing after being kidnapped by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s.
"Japan will not provide energy aid unless there is progress in the abductees issue, this has been declared before," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a news conference.
"But in terms of the nuclear issue, Japan is contributing to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and it is possible that we will cooperate in moves taking place in such areas."
Concerns are growing that Japan will be left behind in the six-way talks if it sticks to its tough stance over the long-simmering issue of the kidnap victims, which included a young girl grabbed while walking home from school.
A South Korean official close to six-way talks told reporters on Tuesday that it might be necessary to seek an alternative if Japan cannot participate in energy aid.
"We may have to consider the participation of the international community," the official said, adding that no specific countries have been confirmed to take part yet.
Japan's Yomiuri newspaper said the United States was in the final stages of arranging for other countries including Australia to foot some of the bill, a move the newspaper said would further dim chances of progress on the abductees feud.
"JAPAN NOT QUALIFIED"
Five people kidnapped by Pyongyang returned to Japan in 2002 but Tokyo wants information about eight more victims North Korea said have died, plus another four people Tokyo suspects were also seized and put to work training spies in language and culture.
Some relatives of missing people in Japan say the numbers kidnapped are much higher.
The six parties have agreed that up to 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel or energy aid equivalent to that will be provided to North Korea when it disables its nuclear facility at Yongbyon and declares its nuclear programmes.
Instead of energy aid, Japan is considering providing money and technology worth about 16 billion yen (92.2 million pounds) to be used to scrap Pyongyang's nuclear programme, the Nikkei business daily reported on Tuesday without citing a source.
This is around the figure Japan has been asked to contribute for the energy aid, the paper said, but an angry North Korea said Japan now had no right to take part in the six-way talks.
"Japan has already lost the qualification to participate in the six-party talks as it has obstructed the talks so far," Minju Joson, the North Korean cabinet's official daily, said in a commentary quoted by Pyongyang's KCNA news agency.
North Korea promised in June to restart an investigation into the kidnappings, but Tuesday's commentary said the issue "has already become clear thanks to the sincere efforts of the DPRK."
In 2006, North Korea conducted its first nuclear test using plutonium and is suspected of pursuing a uranium enrichment programme to make atomic weapons.
(Reporting by Yoko Kubota and Linda Sieg in TOKYO and Jack Kim in SEOUL)
