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3RD LD: Fukuda, Lee agree to cooperate on N. Korea issues, expand exchanges+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) TOKYO, April 21_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING MORE INFO)
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak agreed Monday to cooperate in dealing with the North Korean nuclear and abduction issues as well as expand bilateral people-to-people exchanges, especially at the youth level.
At a press conference following their meeting at the prime minister's office, Fukuda and Lee said they also agreed on holding working-level consultations aimed at restarting negotiations on concluding a bilateral economic partnership agreement that has stalled for more than three years.
The two leaders said they confirmed their intentions to enhance cooperation on other global topics such as tackling global warming and other environmental issues, energy security and development assistance to poor countries.
Their meeting -- the second since Lee took office in February -- marks the resumption of "shuttle diplomacy," or reciprocal visits between the top leaders of Japan and South Korea at least once a year, which had been suspended since 2005.
Fukuda said he and Lee were able to make "a very good start in shuttle summit diplomacy," saying they agreed it is their job to raise the bilateral relationship to a "matured partnership" featuring closer-than-ever ties and cooperation on global issues.
Lee touched briefly on the sensitive topic of history, saying there is a need for the two countries to "face the past and move toward the future by sharing a vision" and to reinforce cooperation for peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia and the world.
"In today's meeting, Prime Minister Fukuda and I shared the feeling that the two countries should build a relationship that is like a tree that is so deeply and solidly rooted in the earth that it would not budge even when a storm hits," Lee said.
On North Korea, Fukuda said the two leaders confirmed the need for the reclusive state to fully and accurately declare its nuclear activities in a prompt manner, as per an agreement in the six-party talks on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
Fukuda and Lee agreed to enhance close coordination, both bilaterally as well as trilaterally with the United States, in dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue, they said.
The South Korean president said he supports Japan's policy of seeking to resolve Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese citizens and the issues of its nuclear and missile development in a comprehensive manner while settling the unfortunate past in order to normalize relations with North Korea.
"Concerning the abduction issue, the humanitarian and human rights issue is important for both Japan and South Korea," Fukuda said. "In today's meeting, the president said he would like to cooperate as much as possible in resolving the abduction issue."
The Japanese government recognizes 17 of its nationals as having been abducted to North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s among whom five have been repatriated, while hundreds of South Koreans are estimated to have been taken forcibly to the North.
In a joint press release issued after their talks, the two leaders reaffirmed the importance of regional cooperation between Japan, South Korea and China, with Lee backing Fukuda's proposal to hold a trilateral summit in Japan this year.
Lee asked Tokyo to proactively consider granting South Korean permanent residents of Japan the right to vote in local elections, and Fukuda responded that there are varying opinions in Japan on the issue but that he will continue to pay attention to deliberations in places such as parliament, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
As part of efforts to expand people exchanges, Fukuda and Lee agreed to take measures such as doubling the maximum annual number of youths participating in the bilateral working holiday system to 7,200 from each side in 2009 and increasing it further to 10,000 by 2012.
On the economic front, they decided to hold working-level preparatory talks in June to seek to resume stalled negotiations aimed at forging an EPA, according to the joint press release.
The negotiations have been suspended since November 2004, after Tokyo rejected Seoul's demand that Japan further open up its market for agricultural products, according to a Japanese Foreign Ministry official.
An EPA goes beyond a free trade agreement, which aims mainly at removing tariffs on goods and trade barriers for services, and also covers intellectual property rights and investment protection rules.
Meanwhile, business leaders of Japan and South Korea submitted a package of recommendations to Fukuda and Lee just after they finished their morning talks, asking them to create an environment so that the two countries will be able to restart the suspended EPA negotiations.
In their 80-minute talks, Fukuda and Lee did not discuss touchy bilateral issues such as their territorial dispute, differences in perceptions of history and the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, the official said.
Visits by Japanese leaders to the Shinto shrine have upset countries such as South Korea which suffered under Japanese aggression before and during World War II.
Lee arrived in Japan on Sunday for a two-day visit on the second leg of a two-nation tour that also took him to the United States -- his first overseas trip since taking office in February. Fukuda said in the joint press conference with Lee that he plans to visit South Korea in the latter half of this year.
The so-called "shuttle diplomacy" was agreed on in December 2004 by then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and then South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun during talks in Kagoshima Prefecture.
Based on the accord, Koizumi visited Seoul in June 2005. But Roh canceled his trip to Japan planned for December that year after Koizumi visited Yasukuni Shrine in October.
The last time a South Korean president visited Japan was in December 2004, when Roh made the trip.
Copyright ? 2008 Kyodo News International, Inc.
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