ID :
45058
Wed, 02/11/2009 - 15:28
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/45058
The shortlink copeid
Japanese FM in Seoul for talks on Afghanistan, NK nuke
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone arrived here Tuesday night for talks with his South Korean counterpart, Yu Myung-hwan, on countering the North Korean nuclear threat, jointly supporting the reconstruction of Afghanistan and improving often prickly relations between Seoul and Tokyo, officials said.
It is Nakasone's first trip to South Korea since he assumed the post last
September. His talks with Yu, slated for Wednesday morning, are largely to follow
up on last month's summit between the leaders of the neighboring nations.
"The ministers also plan to discuss how to strengthen trilateral cooperation with
the United States in the administration of President Barack Obama," a South
Korean foreign ministry official said on the customary condition of anonymity.
The two will discuss a concrete plan to work together to help Afghanistan, he added.
Seoul and Tokyo reached a tentative deal in director-level discussions late last
month to team up to support vocational training and bean cultivation in the
war-ravaged nation, according to the official.
The ministers are also expected to agree to expand a student exchange program, he
said, adding they will hold a joint press conference to brief reporters on the
results of the talks.
The cooperative efforts on bilateral and global issues are cast against the
backdrop of their long-running historical and territorial disputes, part of the
legacy of Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Japan's repeated attempts to whitewash its wartime atrocities and claim Dokdo, a
set of South Korean-controlled rocky islets in the East Sea, have been a source
of frequent diplomatic wrangling.
A ministry source said Yu and Nakasone may touch on the sensitive subject of
Tokyo's pursuit of a meeting between a former North Korean agent and the family
of a Japanese woman abducted by North Korea decades ago.
Japan wants the South Korean government to help the family members of Yaeko
Taguchi, who was abducted by North Korea at the age of 22, interview Kim
Hyeon-hee, a former death row inmate involved in the bombing of a Korean Air
passenger plane while in flight in 1987.
Kim is known to have learned Japanese language from Taguchi, and said earlier
that Taguchi was alive at least until 1987.
Japan said it has confirmed the abductions of 17 Japanese citizens by Pyongyang in
the 1970s and 1980s. The North admitted to only 13, allowing five of them to
return to Japan in 2002 while claiming the others had died.
The Japanese minister is scheduled to return to Japan on Wednesday after paying a
courtesy call on President Lee Myung-bak and meeting business leaders and a group
of university students.
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone arrived here Tuesday night for talks with his South Korean counterpart, Yu Myung-hwan, on countering the North Korean nuclear threat, jointly supporting the reconstruction of Afghanistan and improving often prickly relations between Seoul and Tokyo, officials said.
It is Nakasone's first trip to South Korea since he assumed the post last
September. His talks with Yu, slated for Wednesday morning, are largely to follow
up on last month's summit between the leaders of the neighboring nations.
"The ministers also plan to discuss how to strengthen trilateral cooperation with
the United States in the administration of President Barack Obama," a South
Korean foreign ministry official said on the customary condition of anonymity.
The two will discuss a concrete plan to work together to help Afghanistan, he added.
Seoul and Tokyo reached a tentative deal in director-level discussions late last
month to team up to support vocational training and bean cultivation in the
war-ravaged nation, according to the official.
The ministers are also expected to agree to expand a student exchange program, he
said, adding they will hold a joint press conference to brief reporters on the
results of the talks.
The cooperative efforts on bilateral and global issues are cast against the
backdrop of their long-running historical and territorial disputes, part of the
legacy of Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Japan's repeated attempts to whitewash its wartime atrocities and claim Dokdo, a
set of South Korean-controlled rocky islets in the East Sea, have been a source
of frequent diplomatic wrangling.
A ministry source said Yu and Nakasone may touch on the sensitive subject of
Tokyo's pursuit of a meeting between a former North Korean agent and the family
of a Japanese woman abducted by North Korea decades ago.
Japan wants the South Korean government to help the family members of Yaeko
Taguchi, who was abducted by North Korea at the age of 22, interview Kim
Hyeon-hee, a former death row inmate involved in the bombing of a Korean Air
passenger plane while in flight in 1987.
Kim is known to have learned Japanese language from Taguchi, and said earlier
that Taguchi was alive at least until 1987.
Japan said it has confirmed the abductions of 17 Japanese citizens by Pyongyang in
the 1970s and 1980s. The North admitted to only 13, allowing five of them to
return to Japan in 2002 while claiming the others had died.
The Japanese minister is scheduled to return to Japan on Wednesday after paying a
courtesy call on President Lee Myung-bak and meeting business leaders and a group
of university students.
