South Korea, Japan pledge closer ties

Jan 12, 2009, 5:08 GMT

   Seoul - South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso Monday vowed to increase their efforts to stop North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, in close cooperation with the administration of incoming US president Barack Obama.

   The two leaders, who met for a bilateral summit in the South Korean capital Seoul, also pledged to work together to overcome the effects of the global recession on Asian exports.

Lee told journalists that he hoped close bilateral cooperation as well as working with the international community would be a major contribution to the recovery of the global economy.

   Aso said he and Lee reaffirmed their joint position to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons within the framework of the Six-Party talks with also include the United States, Russia and China.

   The latest round of talks in December hit an impasse over North Korea's refusal to allow verification of its nuclear activities.

   Lee and Aso carefully refrained from touching on sensitive issues, in particular Japan's occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. 'We did not deal directly with the issue of history at today's summit,' Aso said.

After taking office in February 2008, Lee and then-Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed on a resumption of regular bilateral summits, which had been mothballed in 2005 over Seoul's indignation over alleged Japanese attempts to whitewash its wartime past. dpa dg im km