Maehara eager to hold talks with N. Korea, improve ties with China+

TOKYO, Dec. 28 Kyodo -
Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Tuesday that Japan should enhance its
bilateral dialogue with North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile
programs and past abductions of Japanese nationals.
Speaking about prospects for Japan's foreign policies from next year on, he
also said at a press conference that Tokyo should fix its strained relationship
with Beijing over the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, in the
run-up to the 40th anniversary of the normalization of Japan-China relations in
2012.
On North Korea, Maehara said the issues of the nuclear and missile programs as
well as abductions ''directly affect'' Japan.
''We should not only depend on a multilateral framework, but also try to
discuss those issues independently,'' he said.
Tokyo has been involved in the six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea,
which consist of the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia.
Official talks between Japan and North Korea have been stalled since August
2008.
While acknowledging the need to promote mutually beneficial and strategic ties
with China, Maehara repeated Tokyo's stance that the Senkakus administered by
Japan are an ''integral part'' of Japanese territory and denied the existence
of any territorial spat over the islands.
He said Japan's ''rational'' territorial claim reflects the U.N. Convention on
the Law of the Sea and urged China to ''observe maritime order based on the
U.N. convention.''
Collisions between a Chinese fishing trawler and Japanese Coast Guard patrol
vessels near the Senkakus in September led the two countries' ties to
deteriorate to their worst level in years, with suspension of bilateral summits
and Beijing's de facto embargo on rare earth exports to Japan.
==Kyodo
2010-12-29 00:11:04


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