Japan's Prime Minister told the South Korean President Monday he wanted a new era in relations between their countries as the two resumed regular summit talks suspended three years ago amid a dispute over a Tokyo war shrine, the Associated Press reported. Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and South Korea's new President Lee Myung-bak were expected to discuss expanding business and culture exchanges and explore ways to step up cooperation on North Korea's nuclear disarmament. "I would like to open a new era in Japan-South Korea relations, " Fukuda told a joint news conference after the talks. "We still need to deepen our mutual understanding in order to strengthen our ties." Fukuda and Lee agreed to resume the talks during a meeting in February on the sidelines of the South Korean president's inauguration. Lee said he hoped South Korea and Japan could move beyond their difficult past. "In our bilateral relations, of course, we cannot forget history, " he said. "But we should not let an obsession with the past hinder our move toward the future." The two leaders also said they expected North Korea to make a full declaration of its nuclear weapons programs.
