Noda, Lee push trade talks / Leaders agree to step up efforts to negotiate bilateral pact
Yomiuri Shimbun
Noda, Lee push trade talks / Leaders agree to step up efforts to negotiate bilateral pact
Yutaka Ito / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
SEOUL—Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak agreed Wednesday to speed up working-level talks to resume bilateral free trade negotiations.
During a summit at the Blue House presidential office, the leaders also confirmed the need to increase coordinated efforts to tackle North Korea’s nuclear program. In addition, the leaders agreed to expand currency swap lines to help stabilize financial markets.
In a symbolic gesture, Noda handed Lee five volumes of ancient Korean royal archives—including the Joseon Wangsil Uigwe, as they are known in Korean—seized by Japan during its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Regarding the remaining 1,200 archives, Noda said, "We’d like to make arrangements to hand them over at an appropriate time in an appropriate manner." He then invited Lee to visit Japan at an early date.
A transfer agreement between the two countries calls for the archives to be handed over to Korea by Dec. 10.
But Noda added, "There are also Japanese documents in South Korea, and I hope we’ll have better access to them."
The meeting lasted about 80 minutes and was followed by a joint press conference.
Expressing the need to build a forward-looking relationship between the two nations, the leaders agreed to launch a second joint-research project by experts from both countries to explore a new era of relations between Japan and South Korea.
Noda also asked Lee for South Korea’s help on the issue of abductions of Japanese by North Korea.
Lee said, "A relationship [of the two nations] with close cooperation is important to ensure peace and stability in East Asia."
Noda appeared keen to resume economic partnership agreement talks that have been suspended since 2004.
"I won’t comment on the exact timing, but it would be good if we can resume and conclude the negotiations as soon as possible," Noda said.
Lee seemed to share this view, saying, "I’m thinking positively about it."
They also agreed to resume shuttle diplomacy in which the two nations’ leaders visit each other’s country, an arrangement suspended since former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama visited South Korea in October 2009.
According to the prime minister, Lee did not refer to the issue of the rights of "comfort women" for compensation. South Korea has called on Japan to negotiate the issue.
This was Noda’s first overseas trip for bilateral talks since he took office in early September. He met with Lee in September in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session. His choice of South Korea apparently signaled his administration considers the country to be strategically important in Asia.
(Oct. 20, 2011)
