North Korea has rejected Japan's demands to halt its nuclear weapons programme and repatriate five kidnapped Japanese citizens and their families.
After completing two days of acrimonious talks over establishing diplomatic ties, delegations from the two countries acknowledged they agreed on virtually nothing.
Instead, North Korea accused Japan of allowing distrust to sour the talks. Japan said the North Koreans showed no willingness to compromise.
Even though no new talks have been scheduled with the North, Japanese chief cabinet secretary Mr Yasuo Fukuda said today Japan would still be talking with Pyongyang in the interim to ensure their citizens' repatriation.He also said Japan would keep pressuring North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons programme.
During the talks, the first in two years, Tokyo stressed that its demands on nuclear and repatriation issues had to be resolved before pursuing the normalisation of relations or economic aid for impoverished North Korea.
But North Korea refused to comply, insisting normalization and economic aid come first.
"Unfortunately, we saw no change in the North's position," said Mr Katsunari Suzuki, chief of the Japanese delegation. "We are very disappointed by this".
AP