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Lee, Fukuda Pledge ‘New Era of Bilateral Ties’

Posted April. 22, 2008 04:05,   

한국어

President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed yesterday to open a new era of bilateral relations.

In a news conference in Tokyo after their summit talks, they said the two countries will expand their ties into a more mature partnership by jointly contributing to the international community with a future vision while having a correct understanding of history.

President Lee also met Japanese Emperor Akihito and invited him to Korea.

Lee and Fukuda also agreed to significantly strengthen bilateral economic cooperation by holding a working-level meeting in June on a free trade or economic partnership agreement and expanding exchanges in the parts and components industry.

Moreover, they will consider setting up an exclusive industrial complex for parts and components to encourage Japanese investment in Korea.

They will also expedite a university student exchange project to support 1,500 students over the next three years. Korean students to be selected to go to Japan under the project will mostly comprise parts and components-related majors.

Also a policy dialogue between state agencies responsible for small business policies will be established to increase bilateral exchanges in parts and components.

A senior Korean official said, “I expect this agreement to alleviate Korea’s dependence on Japan for parts and components technologies, which is the main reason for Korea’s snowballing trade deficit with Japan. Such a deficit has hit record highs for two years in a row, including 30 billion dollars last year.”

The two leaders also agreed to promote a working holiday visa to expand exchanges among young people in the two countries. The number of allotted participants in the program will double to 7,200 next year and rise to 10,000 in 2012.

Other agreements included the resumption of “shuttle diplomacy” that had been halted since June 2005; deepening balanced economic cooperation that addresses Korea’s chronic trade deficit; close cooperation among Korea, Japan and the United States for complete implementation of the six-party talks; and increasing cooperation on international problems such as global warming, air pollution including yellow dust storms, and energy and the environment.

Fukuda announced his support for Seoul’s North Korea policy, including Lee’s “Anti-Nuclear Opening 3000” initiative.

Lee announced his support for Tokyo’s North Korea policy of addressing pending issues first such as Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs and abduction of Japanese citizens before establishing diplomatic ties with the communist country.

In addition, Fukuda will visit Korea in the latter half of this year, while Lee will attend the G-8 Outreach session in July in Japan. Lee also asked Fukuda to grant suffrage to ethnic Koreans in Japan.



swpark@donga.com