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DATE=10/06/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=JAPAN / NOKOR RICE L-ONLY

NUMBER=2-267547

BYLINE=AMY BICKERS

DATELINE=TOKYO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Japan's government has unveiled a plan to dramatically increase food aid to impoverished Communist North Korea. As V-O-A's Amy Bickers reports from Tokyo, the move reflects official hopes for normalizing bilateral diplomatic ties, but it is also stirring controversy in Japan.

TEXT: Japan says it is sending 500-thousand tons of rice to North Korea to boost its faltering food supply and to encourage Pyongyang to continue to rebuild ties with other countries after decades of self-imposed isolation.

The shipments mark a five-fold increase in Japan's rice aid to its famine-struck neighbor.

A Japanese government spokesman told reporters Friday that Tokyo decided to increase food aid to North Korea at the request of the United Nations World Food Program, and its donation will surpass the amount the U-N had requested.

The spokesman says Tokyo is eager to see North Korea continue to work for reunification

with South Korea and to establish better relations with democratic countries around the

world after a long cold-war chill.

Japan is in the midst of negotiations with North Korea to set up diplomatic ties. This year's third round of bilateral talks is set to take place in Beijing later this month. Officials say the food deliveries could help set a positive tone for negotiations.

But not all in this country support the government's so-called rice diplomacy. Families of about a dozen Japanese nationals who were allegedly kidnapped by North Korean agents are protesting the move. They fear the food aid could remove incentives for resolving the abduction cases.

Some government officials' also voiced concerns. Two members of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's cabinet and a handful of legislators say North Korea has taken no substantial steps towards resolving the disappearances of the Japanese nationals, which Japan says took place in the 1970's and 1980's.

Japan's food donations will be delivered throughout the next 18 months. While the rice is worth about 170-million dollars on the international market, Japan has paid more than one-billion dollars to buy expensive, domestically produced rice. Tokyo is eager to use up a huge rice stockpile caused by overproduction, and is giving massive subsidies to farmers. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/AB/JO/PFH