Economy tops Seoul summit agenda (BBC)

 

Japan and South Korea agree to work together on global issues Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has held summit talks with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak, on the second day of his visit to Seoul. Japan and South Korea have been hard hit by the global financial crisis. Discussions covered a possible free trade deal and other ways to reinforce business and economic cooperation, the BBC correspondent in Seoul said. Since taking office eleven months ago, President Lee has pushed for improved ties with Japan. He has held regular meetings with Japanese leaders. He has also resumed top level visits to Tokyo, which were suspended in 2005 in protest at then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated trips to a controversial Tokyo shrine that honours Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals. Talking business Mr Aso arrived in Seoul on Sunday with 20 Japanese business executives in tow. Representing corporate giants like Toyota, Canon and Nippon Steel, the delegation was a clear signal that Monday's summit meeting with Mr Lee would focus on economic issues, the BBC's John Sudworth said. "President Lee agreed to my view that Asia should be the growth centre in the world and play a big role in the global economy recovery," Mr Aso told a news conference after the leaders' meeting. Mr Lee praised Japan for agreeing in December to a currency swap deal of up to $30bn (£20bn) that helped reduce fears that South Korea could face a foreign exchange crisis. South Korea and Japan share a difficult history including territorial disputes "It is unprecedented that leaders from Japan and South Korea see each other so often and agree to cooperate in broad areas like this," Mr Aso said. "In particular, the two agreed to closely cooperate on reforming their financial systems, drawing up macroeconomic policies and dealing with protective trade blocs ahead of the second G-20 summit scheduled for London in April," a post-summit statement said. Both leaders said they agreed to start talks on how the two countries could contribute to reconstructing Afghanistan, but did not elaborate. "We agreed to build Japan-South Korea relations that would allow us to make international contributions together," Mr Aso said. Both leaders also pledged to work closely with incoming US President Barack Obama to persuade North Korea to end its nuclear programme. No history Definitely not up for discussion, our correspondent said, were the simmering historical feuds that have often strained diplomatic relations. As recently as July last year, Seoul temporarily recalled its ambassador from Tokyo, as a protest against what it saw as a fresh Japanese claim to sovereignty over a set of desolate but disputed islands in the East Sea. The islands are known as called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese. Japan ruled the Korean peninsula as a colony from 1910 to 1945. "We did not deal directly with the issue of history at today's summit," Mr Aso said. Mr Lee, in altering a popular phrase that Japan is geographically "close yet (emotionally) remote" to South Korea, said Japan is becoming a "close and close nation." South Korea and Japan are each other's third-largest trading partners after China and the United States, with two-way trade reaching about $82 billion in 2007.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7823406.stm