Lee meets Japanese party leader over Korean residents in Japan

By Byun Duk-kun
TOKYO, June 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak sought Tokyo's
continued attention and support in improving the status of Korean residents in
Japan in talks Sunday with a local party leader.
"President Lee thanked the New Komeito Party for its support for improved
Korea-Japan relations, as well as the legal status of ethnic Koreans, and asked
for the party's continued support and cooperation," Seoul's presidential office
Cheong Wa Dae said of Lee's meeting with Akihiro Ota, the party's president.
The Komeito Party, or the New Clean Government Party of Japan, is a member of the
country's three-party government coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party.
President Lee specifically asked for Komeito's support in giving ethnic Koreans a
right to vote in Japan's local elections, Cheong Wa Dae said.
Ota called for efforts to conclude a free trade deal, the Economic Partnership
Agreement, between their two countries, saying both sides must work together to
fight the global economic crisis, South Korean press pool reports said.
President Lee was in Tokyo Sunday on a one-day visit for summit talks with
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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