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Li in helpful mood at start of Japan trip

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing waves to the press upon his arrival at the official residence of Japan's lower house Speaker Yohei Kono in Tokyo yesterday. Li is on a three-day visit. PHOTO: AFP

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) offered yesterday to help Japan address concerns over North Korea, a Japanese official said, after Tokyo's refusal to fund a breakthrough deal on Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Li hailed the growing goodwill between Beijing and Tokyo as he started the first visit to Japan by a senior Chinese official since the Asian powers began repairing frayed ties last year.

His trip came two days after North Korea agreed to shut down key nuclear facilities in exchange for oil shipments under a deal hashed out in marathon six-nation talks hosted by Beijing.

But Japan has ruled out funding the agreement due to an emotive dispute with North Korea over the reclusive regime's kidnappings of Japanese civilians.

"We understand that Japan has concerns regarding North Korea. China will cooperate," Li told lower house Speaker Yohei Kono, according to according to lower house official Yuichiro Taie, who was at the meeting.

North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had kidnapped Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies. It returned five victims and their families and said the rest were dead.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who built his career campaigning on the issue, believes more abductees are alive and demands North Korea come clean.

Japan's insistence on bringing up the abduction dispute in the six-way talks angered North Korea and irritated China and South Korea, which both said that Pyongyang's nuclear weapons were the most pressing concern.

The US has supported Japan on the issue, but has taken a more conciliatory line on the North in recent months.

Li, who will meet with Abe today, was also quoted as asking for Japan's understanding over China's satellite-killer test last month.

China became the third country after the US and the former Soviet Union to shoot down an orbiting satellite, triggering concern in the US, Japan and other countries.

"China firmly adheres to the peaceful use of space. We want our view on contributing to peace in space to be understood,'' Li told Kono, according to Taie.

Li's three-day visit is meant to lay the groundwork for a visit in April by Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶), who would be the first top Chinese leader to come to Tokyo since 2000.

Li was quoted as saying that Wen would bring ideas to Tokyo on how to resolve one of the most bitter disputes between the two nations -- how to mark the maritime border in the gas-rich East China Sea.
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