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S. Korea, Japan agree to work for resumption of regular summits
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and Japan agreed Tuesday to make efforts to resume "shuttle diplomacy" between their leaders, as South Korea's incoming leader Lee Myung-bak hopes to mend strained ties between the two countries.
The commitment came at a biannual meeting in Seoul between the two countries' number two diplomats.
"At the advent of the new (South Korean) administration, the vice foreign ministers shared the need to develop South Korea-Japan ties into a mature relationship based on mutual respect and understanding," the Foreign Ministry said in a press release. Lee will take office in late February.
Vice Foreign Minister Cho Jung-pyo and his Japanese counterpart Shotaro Yachi also agreed to promote bilateral exchanges through restarting halted summit diplomacy and exchanging visits by their leaders in 2008, it added.
Japanese and South Korean leaders began one-on-one shuttle diplomacy in July 2004, but the exchanges stopped a year later due to South Korea's anger over then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo that hold Japan's war dead, including war criminals.
Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have often been marred by disputes over history and territory, in part a legacy of Japan's colonial rule of Korea from 1910-45.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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