TOKYO.- A day after a visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine by Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, his foreign minister tried to assuage Seoul's anger over the visit. Nobutaka Machimura told the JoongAng Daily and other Korean reporters yesterday that he hoped scheduled visits to Tokyo by President Roh Moo-hyun in December and Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon in November would not be canceled.
"Exchanges between the two governments should not be stopped because of one issue," the minister said. "When there are problems it's important to have in-depth discussions." The Blue House said yesterday it might cancel Mr. Roh's trip to Tokyo and that plans for a meeting of the two leaders in Busan next month at the APEC summit were also on hold.Mr.
Koizumi's fifth visit to the shrine, where executed World War II war criminals are among those honored, triggered still another outburst of anger from Seoul and Beijing and complaints from some southeast Asian nations. Relations between Korea and its former colonial master have never been better than an uneasy peace despite the huge volume of trade and investment between the neighbors.
Other irritants include a territorial dispute over islets in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) and Japanese textbooks that seem to Koreans to glorify its imperial past and play down atrocities committed against Koreans.
Mr. Machimura said that efforts to restart talks with North Korea on the establishment of diplomatic relations are making no progress because of a demand by Pyongyang that he refused to discuss. Other reports from here yesterday said a dispute over the location of the next round of talks had stalled them, but that both had now agreed to meet in Beijing at the end of this month.
www.joongangdaily.joins.com
No comments:
Post a Comment