Tokyo is upping the ante in working-level talks starting Tuesday in Pyongyang on the abduction issue.

While Japanese officials are cautiously optimistic progress will be made, the government has made clear its patience is wearing thin on North Korea's continuing stonewalling.

It has assembled what is believed to be the largest delegation yet for the talks, the third so far, and has hinted economic sanctions will be imposed against North Korea if Pyongyang does not provide detailed information on the fate of at least 10 missing Japanese who are believed to have been abducted.

Pyongyang, perhaps realizing that it's make or break time, has signaled through diplomatic channels its readiness to try to resolve the issue.

The Japanese delegation will comprise about 15 officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Cabinet Secretariat's abductees support division and National Police Agency.

Talks are scheduled to be held through Friday.

Japan is also encouraged by George W. Bush's re-election as U.S. president. Diplomats in Tokyo believe Bush will likely maintain his current stance toward Pyongyang, namely that the nuclear issue must be resolved within the framework of six-nation talks involving Japan, the two Koreas, China, Russia and the United States.

Pyongyang is said to have agreed to Tokyo's insistence that members of its team investigating the fate of the missing Japanese be allowed to attend the talks.

Japanese officials hope the talks, coupled with the fact Tokyo is sending a formidable mission, will prompt North Korea to offer a ``sincere response.''

``Pyongyang has been quite cooperative in meeting our demands,'' said a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official late last week.

The fact Pyongyang agreed to accepting a delegation that includes police officials and forensic scientists and will let members of its own investigative committee sit in, ``gives us reason to hope that they are being sincere,'' the official said.

``Now we have to wait and see if they will be sincere and give us something we can be satisfied with,'' the official said.

Other officials noted that a lack of progress this time around could inflame already strong anti-North Korea sentiment in Japan.

The talks follow two rounds of insubstantial working-level talks held in Beijing.

``We regard the upcoming talks with great importance,'' Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told reporters last week. ``I believe they (North Koreans) will come forward with some kind of explanation'' about the fate of the missing Japanese.

Machimura told reporters in Seoul on Saturday that the delegation will also press North Korea to return to the table of six-nation talks by the end of this year.

Tokyo has also insisted that North Korean officials working on the country's nuclear development programs also attend. Officials stressed that the abduction issue cannot be resolved without steering a course for Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

On Friday, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters dealing with the abduction issue compiled an interim report on gradually implementing sanctions.

It states that if North Korea is not cooperative, Tokyo should freeze humanitarian aid, enforce reporting of remittances to North Korea, ban exports of specific products to the country and ban port calls by all ships from North Korea.

For the time being, Tokyo hopes it will not have to resort to sanctions.

``We would rather have the option of slapping sanctions, rather than having to actually use that option, to convince North Korea,'' said a senior Foreign Ministry official. ``Personally, I do not believe that sanctions will really provide any favorable outcome, and serve only to make Pyongyang more defensive.''(IHT/Asahi: November 8,2004)