Koizumi Plans Fence-mending Visits to Beijing and Seoul

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is planning to visit South Korea and China soon to try to repair frayed ties with Tokyo's key Asian neighbours, Japanese government sources said on Saturday.

Koizumi angered much of Asia this month, especially South Korea and China which suffered most under Japan's wartime aggression, by visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honours the country's war dead as well as convicted war criminals.

Japanese government sources said Koizumi had instructed the Foreign Ministry to arrange his trip to Seoul and Beijing before he attends a summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to be held in Shanghai in October.

"The prime minister is keen to mend fences with South Korea and China. Therefore, he wants to hold talks with the leaders of the two countries before the APEC summit," one government source told reporters.

The source said Tokyo was sounding out Seoul and Beijing about Koizumi's visit for separate talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

Another Japanese government source said it was almost certain that Koizumi would travel to Seoul but it was not clear whether an angry China would welcome him.

Koizumi had hoped to meet Kim on the sidelines of a special UN General Assembly session on children set for September 19 to 21 in New York, the source said.

"But the South Korean side did not respond positively. And Prime Minister Koizumi decided not to go to New York," the source said.

A spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry declined to say whether Seoul would agree to Koizumi's plan to visit.

"We have not had an official notice about the visit plan from Japan. So we can't officially comment," the Foreign Ministry spokesman in Seoul said.

TOUR OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

The government source said Koizumi was also considering a tour of Southeast Asian countries including Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia possibly in mid-September.

"Prime Minister Koizumi wants not only to secure understanding of his Yasukuni homage from Asian neighbours but also to show that Japan attaches importance to Asia," the source said.

Ties between Japan and its Asian neighbours have also been strained over the approval in April of a new history textbook which glosses over Tokyo's wartime aggression.

Japan further angered South Korea and China last month when it rejected calls for major changes to the text.

In retaliation, South Korea has dramatically scaled back cultural and military contacts and threatened to boycott educational exchanges with Japan.

Japan has said the textbook approved by the Education Ministry does not represent the government's official view of history.

Seoul says the history book tries to justify Japan's invasion of much of Asia in the early 20th century and fails to mention crucial details such as the plight of so-called "comfort women" forced to serve as sex slaves to Japanese troops.

Japan colonised Korea in 1910, forcing Koreans to use its language and pledge loyalty to its emperor until the occupation ended with Japan's surrender in World War Two in 1945.

Apart from the thorny issues stemming from Japan's wartime aggression, Tokyo has been locked in fishing and trade disputes with Seoul.

Japan and China have yet to resolve a trade row that started in April when Japan raised tariffs on some Chinese goods, including shiitake mushrooms, leeks and straw for the tatami mats to curb a flood of cheap imports and protect domestic producers.

In response, China doubled tariffs in July on 60 varieties of Japanese products from a range of three goods -- mobile phones, vehicles and air conditioners.






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