Aso calls on Seoul to help address crisis

SEOUL (AP) Prime Minister Taro Aso called Sunday for cooperation with South Korea to overcome the ongoing global financial turmoil as he began a two-day visit to Seoul.

Aso is scheduled to meet Monday with President Lee Myung Bak to discuss economic cooperation and international efforts to end the North Korean nuclear standoff.

Since taking office 11 months ago, Lee has called for better ties with Japan and has held five summits with Japanese leaders. He resumed top-level visits, which were suspended in 2005 in protest of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine.

Lee has said he will not demand a new apology over Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Japanese leaders have repeatedly issued apologies over their country's past wrongdoing, but many South Koreans say they are insincere and demand a new one.

After his arrival in the morning, Aso attended a business forum where he said the two countries should cooperate to surmount the global financial crisis.

"Today, the Japan-South Korea relationship is getting closer and becoming one that is unshakable," Aso said through a translator.

South Korea and Japan are key trade partners with two-way trade reaching $82.6 billion in 2007.

The two countries have taken steps toward restarting stalled free-trade talks — which ground to a halt in late 2004 over disagreements on how much to lower trade barriers on agricultural goods. The sides held working-level meetings twice last year to prepare for reopening negotiations.

Aso said both nations' governments have been receiving requests from businessmen to reach the deal.

Bilateral trade has favored Japan with South Korea recording a nearly $30 billion trade deficit in 2007.

Earlier in the day, Aso visited a Seoul cemetery honoring 167,500 Korean leaders, soldiers and other people. He paid a silent tribute and laid white flowers at a memorial.