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TOKYO: South Korea’s new President Lee Myung Bak sought Monday to
turn the page in troubled relations with Japan, pledging to
cooperate over North Korea and to avoid “knee-jerk” reactions
over the past.
Lee is the first South Korean leader to visit
the neighboring country in more than three years amid lingering
bitterness over Japan’s 1910 to 1945 rule over the Korean
peninsula.
“Of course, we cannot forget about the past
when we think about relations between Japan and South Korea. But we
must not let the past hamper moves towards the future,” Lee said
after talks with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
The two leaders decided to restart a plan for
“shuttle diplomacy” of two summits a year and to step up
exchanges of young people, including through a new working holiday
plan, according to a joint statement.
“Prime Minister Fukuda and I have resolved to
affirm a strong bilateral relationship, like a tree with roots that
go deep underground and can withstand a strong storm,” Lee told
the joint press conference.
He also said he would welcome a visit by Emperor
Akihito, which would be the first by a Japanese royal to the Korean
peninsula since independence.
Lee is on the second leg of his first foreign
trip as president that earlier took him to the United States, which
also had uneasy relations with Roh, particularly over North Korea.
He, however, has pledged to take a tougher line
on North Korea after ending a decade by liberal leaders in Seoul who
stressed reconciliation with their impoverished communist neighbor.
Japan has tense relations with North Korea, in
part due to a dispute over Pyongyang’s kidnappings of Japanese
civilians in the 1970s and 1980s.
-- AFP
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