Japan, South Korea resume summit talks, discuss North Korea, bilateral issues

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak also agreed to step up cooperation to achieve North Korea's disarmament and expand their business and cultural exchanges.

"I would like to open a new era in Japan-South Korea relations," Fukuda told a joint news conference after the talks. "We still need to deepen our mutual understanding in order to strengthen our ties."

The two countries agreed to hold annual summits in 2004, but South Korea suspended them in 2005 to protest then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to a Tokyo war shrine criticized as a symbol of Japanese militarism.

Fukuda and Lee agreed to resume the talks during a meeting in February on the sidelines of the South Korean president's inauguration.

Japan ruled the Korean peninsula as a colony in 1910-45 before Tokyo's defeat in World War II, and many Koreans still harbor deep resentment over the Japanese occupation. Tokyo and Seoul have also clashed over Japan's wartime atrocities and the ownership of tiny islets in the waters between the two countries.

Lee said he hoped to develop "future-oriented" relations with Japan, though he said the past should not be forgotten.

"In our bilateral relations, of course, we cannot forget history," he said. "But we should not let an obsession with the past hinder our move toward the future."

The two leaders also said they expected North Korea to make a full declaration of its nuclear weapons programs.

Nuclear talks between North Korea and five other nations are stalled over whether Pyongyang will fully declare its uranium enrichment program and alleged proliferation activities in return for concessions.

Fukuda and Lee also agreed to boost bilateral trade and investment, and to hold working-level talks aimed at establishing a free trade agreement.

Fukuda thanked Lee for choosing Japan as one of the two destinations of his first presidential trip abroad. Lee came to Japan after a visit to the United States.

"That shows President Lee's policy to prioritize his country's relations with Japan," Fukuda said.

The last trip to Japan by a South Korea president was by South Korean Roh Moo-hyun in December 2004.

Lee also was to meet with Japanese business leaders and Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.

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