Aso calls for S. Korean support on early conclusion of bilateral EPA

SEOUL, Jan. 11 Kyodo -
Visiting Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Sunday called on South Korean
business leaders to support an early conclusion of a bilateral economic
partnership agreement in a meeting in Seoul ahead of summit talks with
President Lee Myung Bak on Monday.
''I understand very well that the governments of Japan and South Korea are
required to realize a Japan-South Korea EPA immediately, which would bring
about benefits to both countries' businesses,'' Aso said at a luncheon hosted
by four major South Korean business lobbies.
The bilateral EPA negotiations have been suspended since 2004 due to opposition
from the South Korean side amid concern that the agreement could further expand
the country's trade deficit with Japan. An EPA centers on liberalization of
trade and also covers intellectual property rights and investment protection
rules.
Citing his and Lee's business backgrounds, Aso said, ''President Lee and I seem
to have similar perspectives and I feel a sense of affinity with him. I believe
we can build mutually beneficial, so-called win-win bilateral business
relations.''
Later in the evening, Aso and Lee met with business leaders from both Japan and
South Korea and asked them to work closely to ride out the global financial
crisis.
The meeting was attended by nearly 20 Japanese business leaders who are
accompanying Aso, including Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the Japan Business
Federation, while South Korea was represented by about 20 business leaders
including Cho Suck Rai, chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries.
In a banquet held at the Blue House presidential office in the evening, Aso
said in a speech, ''The frequent exchanges between leaders in various arenas
from both countries are proof that the nations have become close both
geographically and psychologically.''
''I believe we can expand the horizon of Japan-South Korean ties by turning our
eyes to the world and working and sweating together in such fields as the
economy, environment and assistance for developing countries,'' he added.
Lee said, meanwhile, ''I hope that Japan and South Korea will weather the
current economic crisis and work closely in bringing about a new financial
order for the world.''
Earlier in the day, Aso visited a South Korean national cemetery dedicated to
the war dead to offer flowers.
On Sunday, the first day of his two-day stay in South Korea, Aso also toured
Hanyang University's fusion technology center, where Japan's Riken research
institute has set up a research base as part of the countries' efforts to
jointly enhance research in the field of science and technology.
In Monday's talks, the leaders are set to agree on boosting cooperation in
tackling the financial crisis and issues linked to North Korea as well as to
tie up in offering international development assistance.
The summit will be the second round of so-called ''shuttle diplomacy,''
following Lee's visit to Tokyo last April, but marks the first visit by a
Japanese leader to South Korea since the two countries agreed last February to
resume reciprocal visits. ''I've met Mr. Lee four times already and I feel
we know each other very well,'' Aso told reporters in Tokyo on Friday prior to
his first trip to the country as prime minister. ''I'm glad my visit to Seoul
has been made possible at such an early time in the year.''
Since taking office last September, Aso has met with Lee four times bilaterally
as well as at international meetings including the Group of 20 financial summit
held in Washington in November.
Since Monday's talks are aimed at building ''a future-oriented mature
relationship,'' thorny issues such as a longstanding territorial row over South
Korean-controlled islets in the Sea of Japan are unlikely to be taken up, a
Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
Aso and Lee are also likely to reaffirm their agreement to work jointly to
counter the global financial crisis that has dealt a blow to the two economies.
The agreement was made at a trilateral summit with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
in Fukuoka Prefecture in mid-December.
In the area of development, the two are set to agree to cooperate on providing
official development aid to help reconstruct conflict-devastated Afghanistan,
especially in areas such as education and agriculture, the ministry official
said.
On the North Korean nuclear problem, Aso and Lee are set to agree to work
closely with Barack Obama, who will be sworn in as U.S. president on Jan. 20,
to try to resolve the issue.
Aso is likely to ask Lee for continued support over Pyongyang's abduction of
Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, while Lee is expected to brief Aso
on recent relations between the two Koreas, the official said.
The two are also expected to agree to speed up moves toward the resumption of
stalled negotiations for a bilateral EPA and to tie up in the field of science
and technology with an eye toward South Korea's planned launch of a satellite
on a Japanese H2-A rocket.
With the aim of building a ''new era'' in the bilateral partnership and making
it more global, the two are expected to agree to establish a joint project by
the end of this month to study a range of political and economic problems
facing the international community, Japanese government sources said.
Shuttle diplomacy between Japan and South Korea had been suspended since 2005
when relations became strained by then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi's repeated visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where the war dead
including Class-A war criminals are enshrined. South Korea and other Asian
countries view the shrine as a symbol of Japan's wartime aggression.
But Japan-South Korea relations improved during the administration of Koizumi's
successor Shinzo Abe, and Abe's successor Yasuo Fukuda, whose diplomacy was
often described as dovish, and Lee agreed Feb. 25 to resume reciprocal visits
and build a ''new era'' when Fukuda visited Seoul to attend Lee's inauguration
ceremony.
==Kyodo