The Japanese government plans to extend its economic sanctions against North Korea for another six months because of little progress in the issue of Japanese nationals kidnapped by the communist state, a media report said Sunday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters that the government plans to keep the sanctions in place, which were first ordered last October in the wake of Pyongyang's nuclear test, Kyodo News agency reported. «We are not in a situation in which we can stop or ease the sanctions,» said Machimura, adding that there has been no progress in the abduction issue. Officials at the Prime Minister's office were not available Sunday. The current measures, extended in April for six months, will now expire in mid-October, the Associated Press reported. The measures include closing ports to North Korean ships and banning the import of North Korean goods. The abduction issue has been a main sticking point for the two countries which have no diplomatic ties. North Korea acknowledged in 2002 that it kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s. Pyongyang sent five of them home later that year, but insisted the rest were dead. Japan has demanded proof and says more of its citizens may have been taken. It has also refused to provide energy and economic aid to North Korea or normalize relations unless progress is made on resolving the issue.
