Apr 21, 2008, 9:58 GMT
Tokyo - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak agreed Monday to enhance bilateral cooperation to dismantle North Korea's nuclear programmes and resume their annual visits to one another's countries.
Fukuda and Lee, who arrived in Japan Sunday for a two-day visit, pledged to reinforce trilateral cooperation with the United States to try to win an agreement from North Korea, saying ending Pyongyang's nuclear programmes was necessary for regional peace and stability.
Lee also agreed to cooperate with Tokyo to resolve the abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and '80s.
The two leaders met for the second time since Lee's inauguration on February 25 when Fujuda visited Seoul.
'We were able to make a very good start of 'shuttle diplomacy,'' Fukuda said at a press conference with Lee. 'We agreed that it was our job to upgrade the Japan-South Korea relationship to a mature one.'
Fukuda and Lee agreed to resume their annual reciprocal visits, which had been suspended since Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the Yasukuni Shrine in 2005.
Relations between the two countries were strained under Koizumi mainly because of his repeated visits to the shrine - which honours Japanese war dead, including convicted war criminals - and other historical issues related to World War II and Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula in the first half of the 20th century.
Japan and South Korea confirmed that they need to put more emphasis on the future relationship.
'We should not be caught in the past,' Lee said, 'The past should not interfere with what we are trying to achieve for the future.'
Fukuda announced plans to visit Lee later this year.
The two leaders also agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation on global warming, hold round-table meetings involving business leaders in the summer and pointed out a need to establish working groups in June to resume stalled negotiations on an economic partnership agreement.
Student exchanges would also help improve bilateral ties, they said.
The two nations were expected to accept 7,200 young Japanese and South Koreans every year for a bilateral working holiday programme. The programme would expand to accept up to 10,000 youths by 2012.
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