Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon said Japan and North Korea should resolve a dispute over the abduction of Japanese nationals at an early date through dialogue.

"The stance of our government is that peaceful dialogue rather than sanctions or a blockade will do more to draw North Korea to the dialogue table," he told reporters.

"We hope the issue will not affect international efforts to resume six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue."

The comment followed North Korea's warning the Stalinist country would regard any sanctions imposed on it by Japan as a declaration of war and will hit back with an "effective physical" response.

Many Japanese support sanctions against North Korea after it provided the wrong ashes to Japan to support its claim that two Japanese it kidnapped during the Cold War had since died.

One of those kidnapped to train spies in Japanese language and culture was Megumi Yokota, abducted in 1977 as a 13-year-old schoolgirl.

Tokyo announced last week that DNA tests showed charred remains handed to a Japanese delegation last month did not, as Pyongyang claimed, belong to Yokota.

The finding reignited anger in Japan against North Korea and Tokyo froze shipments of food aid to the destitute country.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.