Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso arrived in South Korea yesterday for a visit aimed at discussing the global financial crisis, with Afghanistan and North Korea also high on the agenda.
Making his first visit to Seoul since becoming prime minister, Aso will hold talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak today in which they are expected to discuss the deadlocked negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear weapons drive.
The two leaders will also discuss cooperation in Afghanistan, where the Asian economic powers are both looking at expanding reconstruction aid, the Japanese foreign ministry said.
PHOTO: AP
The summit is part of the so-called “shuttle diplomacy” plan under which the two countries’ leaders hold annual summits.
“The government hopes the diplomatic visits by the two countries will encourage a higher level of exchanges by business leaders and others,” said a Japanese government official ahead of the prime minister’s visit.
But the exchange of visits with South Korea, which suffered under harsh Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, has often been disrupted by territorial or historical disputes.
Aso’s visit comes as a territorial row has erupted again over Japan’s claim to four uninhabited islands in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) that are administered by Seoul.
Aso, who has in the past angered other Asian nations by praising elements of Japanese imperialism, has made an effort since becoming prime minister not to irritate neighboring countries.
He also admitted last week that Koreans and Allied prisoners worked as forced labor at his family’s coal mine during World War II.
But the two leaders are expected to sidestep sensitive issues during the summit and focus on measures to tackle the global financial crisis, such as foreign currency credit swap programs.
“The No. 1 goal of the visit is to show the two countries are moving forward to cultivate better relations,” said Yoshinobu Yamamoto, professor of international politics at Aoyama Gakuin University, ahead of the summit. “The best solution for the territorial dispute for now is for both parties to keep their mouths shut.”
After arriving in Seoul, Aso first visited the South Korean national cemetery and donated flowers.
The prime minister, accompanied by a delegation of about 20 business leaders, including Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the powerful Japan Business Federation, plans to attend a luncheon hosted by South Korea’s top business bodies.
The weekend trip to Seoul comes as a respite for Aso from mounting opposition pressure at home.
Aso, who took office in September, is struggling with tumbling popularity that has dropped to about 20 percent, with voters critical of his handling of the economy and a series of gaffes by the conservative leader.
Japan’s resurgent opposition has been pressing Aso to dissolve parliament, seeing a chance finally to unseat his Liberal Democratic Party.
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS