25 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Kyodo News

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and new South Korean President Lee Myung Bak agreed Monday to rebuild future-oriented ties by resuming reciprocal visits by their top leaders this year, seeking to restart free trade talks, cooperating on the North Korean nuclear and abduction issues, and working together in other areas.
Also highlighting a new course in bilateral ties in their first meeting, the two leaders did not have in-depth exchanges on such thorny issues as historical and territorial rows. But it remains to be seen how they can manage the disputes from rekindling to undermine relations.

‘’I called for building a new era in Japan-South Korea relations, and the president said he has exactly the same idea,'’ Fukuda told reporters after the 50-minute meeting, held soon after Lee’s inauguration ceremony.
Lee is expected to visit Japan in mid-April or later, and Fukuda will pay a return visit to South Korea possibly in the fall or later, the Japanese leader said.
The meeting at the Blue House presidential office was Lee’s first with a foreign leader since he replaced Roh Moo Hyun, a sign that Lee is attaching great importance to South Korea-Japan relations which soured largely during the 2001-2006 tenure of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
During the talks, Lee offered his ‘’full support'’ for Fukuda’s diplomacy which focuses on Asian countries, with a Japanese official quoting him as saying, ‘’If Japan and South Korea cooperate, that cooperation will become a big power in international society.'’
The so-called bilateral ‘’shuttle diplomacy'’ was initially agreed on in December 2004 by then Prime Minister Koizumi and Roh. But the exchanges stopped in 2005 due to Koizumi’s visits to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honors war criminals along with the war dead.
Koizumi’s successor, Shinzo Abe, visited Seoul in October 2006 soon after assuming office to try to improve bilateral ties, but a reciprocal visit by Roh went unrealized.
Hopes are high in Tokyo that relations are going ‘’to move at full throttle'’ under Fukuda and Lee, a Foreign Ministry official said. Fukuda, who took office in September, is known for promoting amicable relations with Japan’s neighbors, and Lee is also eager to enhance bilateral ties while taking a calm stance on historical matters.
On historical issues, Fukuda stressed the importance of ‘’acknowledging past facts as facts and to face history humbly by always thinking how the others think,'’ but he did not elaborate, according to Japanese officials.
Supporting Fukuda’s ideas and expressing his intention to work to ‘’make a stable Japan-South Korea relationship,'’ Lee was quoted as saying, ‘’I would like to bring into shape our cooperation with a view toward the future.'’
There were no exchanges about the territorial row over islets in the Sea of Japan, known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, they said.
On the economic front, Fukuda and Lee shared the view that a free trade agreement is important and agreed to start working-level talks aimed at resuming the FTA negotiations.
South Korea and Japan suspended negotiations on such an agreement in November 2004 because Tokyo rejected Seoul’s demand to open its market to agricultural products. There is strong criticism in the South Korean government that such an agreement would expand South Korea’s trade deficit with Japan.
On North Korea, Fukuda and Lee, who advocates a tougher stance on North Korea than his predecessors, reaffirmed trilateral cooperation with the United States to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea as agreed on under the six-party framework.
On the issue of North Korea’s past abduction of Japanese nationals, Fukuda told reporters that Lee said he ‘’understands the issue well and would like to cooperate'’ to resolve it.
Fukuda’s visit comes as the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions have stalled since Pyongyang missed an end-of-2007 deadline to declare all details of its nuclear activities in breach of an accord with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
Lee and Fukuda also agreed to cooperate on tackling other global concerns such as climate change and to expand exchanges between youths and business circles of both countries, Japanese officials said.
The two leaders also agreed to form a private-level consultative body aimed at further promoting investment in each country and economic cooperation, according to Lee’s spokesman Lee Dong Kwan.
Meanwhile, Fukuda told Lee that he would like to invite the South Korean leader to be one of the nonmember participants at the Group of Eight summit to be held in Hokkaido in July. Lee expressed his appreciation at the offer.
Fukuda, accompanied by his wife Kiyoko during his first trip to South Korea as prime minister to attend Lee’s inauguration ceremony, returned to Japan after the summit meeting.
The 66-year-old Lee from the conservative Grand National Party won the Dec. 19 presidential election in a landslide victory that marked the end of a decade of rule by liberal presidents. The former business executive and Seoul mayor took office Monday for a five-year term.
About 45,000 people attended the inauguration ceremony, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan and former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.

Filed by Anita Li under Multilateral Trade