News

The leaders of South Korea and Japan held talks in Tokyo on Sunday, with their approach to an increasingly hostile North Korea and closer economic cooperation at the top of the agenda.

The day of meetings between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso comes a month after Pyongyang''s May 25 underground nuclear test ratcheted up tensions in the region.

The North has intensified its rhetoric against the two countries and the US amid mounting worries it will soon test-fire short- or mid-range missiles.

The leaders were also expected to discuss the global economic crisis.

On Saturday, the two countries'' finance ministers met and agreed to team up to nurse their economies back to health.

They were scheduled to hold a joint press conference later on Sunday.

The visit is part of efforts by the Asian neighbours to improve their relationship, which has been troubled since Japan''s 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korea.

A set of tiny islands in the Sea of Japan that both claim has long been a source of friction, and South Korea has protested when Tokyo approves textbooks Seoul feels justify wartime wrongdoings.

But they have strong economic ties and share close alliances with the US, which maintains a large military presence in both countries.

Previous Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda attended Lee''s inauguration last year, after Lee made campaign promises to improve ties with Japan.

This is Lee''s fourth visit to Japan as president.

Aso, who visited Seoul in January, is expected to go again later this year.

Japan and South Korea both support a return to the six-party talks which aimed to give North Korea economic aid and other concessions in exchange for abandoning its nuclear programme.

The talks also involve China, the US and Russia.

The talks started in 2003 and made halting progress until April, when North Korea announced it would no longer participate.