VLADIVOSTOK, Sept. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held impromptu talks at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit Sunday and concurred on the need to work together to create a future-oriented relationship for the two countries.
The pull-aside meeting took place after APEC's final session in Vladivostok, Russia, with both leaders exchanging views while standing.
"The talks lasted four to five minutes and began when the Japanese prime minister approached the president," Seoul's presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha told reporters.
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South Korean President Lee Myung-bak (R) shakes hands with Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda at the APEC summit in Vladivostok, Russia, on Sept. 9, 2012. (Photo courtesy of Presidential Office Cheong Wa Dae) (Yonhap) |
The short talks and the understanding reached is noteworthy because they come a day after South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and his Japanese counterpart Koichiro Gemba met on the sidelines of the summit and agreed to dispassionately handle tensions between the two countries so as to calm the situation at an early date.
The talks by Lee and Noda and the agreements reached by the foreign ministers of the neighboring countries suggest neither side wants tensions over Dokdo to rise further.
South Korea and Japan have experienced one of the worst chills in their relations as Japan strongly protested Lee's unprecedented visit on Aug. 10 to the South's easternmost islets of Dokdo.
Japan has long laid claims to Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, in the country's school textbooks, government reports and other ways, stoking enmity in South Korea against its former colonial ruler.
South Koreans see those claims as amounting to denying Korea's rights because the country regained independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, which includes Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula.
Besides the talks held with Noda, the South Korean president met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier in the day and agreed on the importance of cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo in dealing with North Korea and its nuclear programs.
Lee and Clinton held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a summit of APEC which Clinton attended on behalf of President Barack Obama.
The top American diplomat told Lee that cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan is more important than at any other time in dealing with the North in the wake of the leadership change in Pyongyang, according to Park. He said Clinton also underscored China's role in handling Pyongyang.
She expressed hope for future-oriented relations between Seoul and Tokyo, and Lee said he also believes trilateral cooperation is important for resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff, the spokesman said.
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South Korean President Lee Myung-bak (R) holds talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the APEC summit meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, on Sept. 9, 2012. (Photo courtesy of Presidential Office Cheong Wa Dae) (Yonhap) |
Clinton, meanwhile, said North Korea's "young leader" appears to be strengthening his grip on power, but despite talk of economic change in the North and superficial signs, Washington does not consider them substantial changes, according to the spokesman.
U.S. officials attending the meeting also said that Washington believes North Korea should carry out reform to improve the lives of its people and give up its nuclear programs, but reform without denuclearization cannot be an alternative, the spokesman said.
Clinton credited Lee for strengthening the Seoul-Washington alliance, saying it will be a big legacy of his presidency. She also praised Lee's leadership over the landmark free trade agreement between the two countries, cooperation on North Korea and other issues, according to the spokesman.
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