Japan, China and South Korea agreed at a North Asia summit on Saturday to bolster cooperation to tackle the global financial crisis, putting aside decades of animosity. The North Asian leaders also agreed on the need to act together to push forward multilateral talks aimed at halting North Korea's nuclear program, after negotiations in Beijing failed to make progress this week. Japan's ties with its neighbors have been plagued by bitter memories of Tokyo's past military aggression. But the focus was on cooperation at the summit of North Asian leaders, the first held separately from an annual Southeast Asian meeting. “China, Japan, South Korea, as important economies in Asia and in the world, must deal with this once-in-a-century situation. We must talk with each other, make adjustments in our macro-economies and have financial cooperation in East Asia,” Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a joint news conference after the talks with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in southern Japan. The leaders confirmed the importance of steps to expand demand, pledged not to create new trade barriers over the next 12 months and backed efforts to bolster a regional web of currency swaps. But they unveiled no new specific steps. The three North Asian countries account for 75 percent of the region's economy and two-thirds of its trade. On Friday, Seoul, which has suffered the most of the three countries from the crisis, agreed new currency swap deals with Tokyo and Beijing worth the equivalent of nearly $50 billion. It is the latest effort to stabilize an economy the central bank says is set for its slowest growth in over a decade. South Korea, where the won currency has lost about one-third of its value against the dollar this year, has offered $130 billion in measures to shore up its banking system and another $25 billion in fiscal spending and tax cut plans to try to prevent a recession in its export-driven economy. Its central bank has slashed interest rates to a record low, while promising to do more if needed. Japan said on Friday it would expand its stimulus plans and bolster a war chest for bank rescues to $131 billion, but kept markets guessing on whether it would intervene to stop a surging yen.
