North Korea has threatened to reconsider its moratorium on missile tests if talks on normalising diplomatic relations with Japan fail to make progress.

The Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, won a pledge from North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il to extend the moratorium - originally due to end next year - at a summit meeting in September.

But further talks in Kuala Lumpur last week left both countries far apart on the key issues of Pyongyang's nuclear arms programme and Tokyo's demand for the permanent return of five Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in 1978.

Quoting a foreign ministry official, North Korea's official news agency described Japan's stance as damaging to confidence between the two countries, and accused Tokyo of failing to atone for its 1910-1945 colonisation of the Korean peninsula.

Japan unworried

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Tuesday that he did not take North Korea's threat to resume missile testing seriously.

"I do not believe North Korea will trample on the fundamental spirit of our Pyongyang agreement," Mr Koizumi said, referring to the two sides' summit in September.

"We will speak firmly as we continue our negotiations," he added.

North Korea shocked the world in 1998 when it test-fired a multiple-stage Taepodong missile which flew over Japan.

	Japan's missing Taken in the 1970s and 1980s Eight Japanese said to be dead Five still alive in North Korea The survivors have children in N Korea Kim Jong-il says he has punished the culprits See also: Profiles of the missing

Since 1999 it has observed a self-imposed moratorium on air-borne missile testing, which is usually a prerequisite to deploying a useable nuclear weapon.

Mr Kim told Mr Koizumi last month that he would extend that moratorium until after 2003, although he stressed that it was contingent on progress in talks with the United States.

But relations between the two countries have cooled markedly since Pyongyang allegedly told US officials that it had a nuclear weapons programme.

Japan and North Korea are at odds over the nuclear programme and the Stalinist state's refusal to permanently repatriate five Japanese kidnapped by North Korea.

At last week's talks between the two sides North Korea said such issues could only be discussed once bilateral relations are normalised.

But Tokyo insisted that resolving the issues were a precursor to forging ties.

Broken promises

"No progress was made in the discussion on the essential problems," the foreign ministry official was quoted as saying by KCNA on Tuesday.

He reiterated North Korea's accusation that Japan had broken its promise that it would send the five kidnap victims - currently in Japan on a visit - back to Pyongyang.

The North Korean official said that if Japan was willing to break its promises, then North Korea was not obliged to stick to the missile-test moratorium.

	Map shows range of Taepodong 1 missile, flown over Japan in 1998 Evidence that North Korea preparing flight test of Taepodong 2 with range of 4,000-6,000 km (could reach Alaska) Thought to be developing Taepodong 3 with range of 8,000 km (could reach western US)

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