Japan and South Korea agree to work more closely together to weather economic crisis

Japan, South Korea agree to tighter economic ties

TOKYO — Japan and South Korea have agreed to team up to nurse their economies back to financial health, Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said Saturday.

“We have reached a joint understanding that to ride out the current economic and financial crisis, Japan and South Korea will cooperate in a variety of settings,” he told reporters. The Finance Ministry wouldn’t elaborate on his comments.

Yosano and Korean Minister of Strategy and Finance Yoon Jeung-hyun met Saturday in Tokyo as part of an ongoing series of financial talks between the two countries.

At a dinner the previous evening, the two ministers also shared their “deep concern” about North Korea’s most recent nuclear test on May 25, according to local media reports.

The talks took place a day before Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak were to meet in Tokyo. The issue of an increasingly belligerent North Korea and closer economic ties between the Asian allies are likely to be at the top of their agenda.

Japan and South Korea are close geographic neighbors and major trade partners. They have in recent years been moving to firm up economic ties after previous attempts failed.

Talks aimed at establishing a free trade agreement in 2004 fell apart over disagreements about trade barriers on agricultural goods. The following year the countries agreed to hold annual meetings between their finance ministers, which were previously held in 2006 and 2007.