Japan to Host South Korea Summit       01/12 06:19

   

   TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will host South Korean 
President Lee Jae Myung in her hometown on Tuesday, in a summit meant to 
stabilize ties between the two sometime-rivals as Japan's worries about Chinese 
power in Asia grows.

   The meeting is part of a swirl of diplomatic activity in a region with 
growing tensions. A week ago Lee visited China, where leader Xi Jinping sought 
to cozy up to Seoul amid tensions between Japan and China after Takaichi said 
in November that potential Chinese military action against Taiwan, the island 
democracy Beijing claims as its own, could justify Japanese intervention.

   Lee's visit also follows the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by 
the United States, a mutual ally of Japan and South Korea.

   Takaichi and Lee will meet in her hometown of Nara, Japan's scenic ancient 
capital.

   Economy, China and Trump

   The talks will be their first full summit and third meeting in less than 
three months since Takaichi took office, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials 
said.

   At their talks on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, 
in October, Lee asked Takaichi to meet in Nara.

   Takaichi on Monday returned to the area for the first time since taking 
office and posted a message on X: "I hope to further push forward Japan's 
relations with South Korea in the forward-looking way as we meet in the ancient 
capital of Nara with more than 1,300 years of history and longstanding cultural 
exchanges between Japan and the Korean Peninsula."

   Their meeting will focus on trade and the challenges of China and North 
Korea.

   Japan and South Korea must also figure out how to deal with Trump's 
unpredictable diplomacy, and both countries are under U.S. pressure to increase 
their defense spending.

   During Lee's meetings in China, Xi called on the two countries to join 
hands, noting their historical rivalry against Japan in World War II. Lee told 
reporters during his China visit that "relations with Japan are as important as 
those with China for us." He expressed hopes for swift resolutions of 
Japan-China disputes but admitted Seoul had limited capabilities to broker a 
reconciliation.

   "Given the current strategic environment, strengthening Japan-South Korea 
relations and reinforcing the Japan-U.S.-South Korea cooperation is more 
important than ever," Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters on 
Friday. "The Japanese and South Korean governments are on the same page about 
closely communicating to develop our relations stably and in a forward-looking 
manner."

   Takaichi and Lee on Wednesday will visit Horyu Temple, which includes 
architecture from the late 7th or early 8th century, making them some of the 
world's oldest surviving wooden buildings and illustrating Japanese adaptation 
of Buddhism via the Korean Peninsula. Lee will also meet with South Korean 
residents in Japan before returning home in the afternoon.

   Long history, delicate ties

   Japan's cultural, religious and political ties to the Korean Peninsula are 
ancient, but their modern history has been repeatedly disrupted by disputes 
stemming from the brutal Japanese colonial rule of Korea from 1910-1945.

   Under a 1965 normalization treaty, Japan provided $500 million in economic 
assistance to South Korea, saying all wartime compensation issues were settled. 
But historical issues including forced labor and sexual slavery during the war 
have disrupted ties for decades as Tokyo promoted revisionist views.

   Relations have begun improving in recent years under shared challenges such 
as growing China-U.S. competition and North Korea's advancing nuclear program.

   Takaichi's reputation as a security hawk and an assumption by some that Lee 
would tilt toward North Korea and China led to early worries over their ties. 
But both leaders have so far sought to improve their relationship.

   Takaichi was a regular visitor at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 
Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals -- an action 
seen by the Koreas and China as a lack of remorse about Japan's wartime past. 
But she sent a religious ornament instead of praying at Yasukuni for the Aug. 
15 anniversary of Japan's defeat and the shrine's autumn festival.

   While the two leaders are expected to stay away from the historical 
disputes, media reports say they may discuss possible humanitarian cooperation 
in the ongoing effort to recover the remains at a former undersea mining site 
in western Japan where 180 workers, including 136 Korean forced laborers, were 
killed in a 1942 accident.

   Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said the two governments have been 
discussing a possible DNA analysis of some of the remains found at the site 
last year.