Japan Lawmakers Plan North Korea Talks With President-Elect Lee

By Hideko Takayama

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese lawmakers led by Koichi Kato, former secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, will visit Seoul on Feb 10 and 11 for talks on North Korea with South Korea's president-elect Lee Myung Bak.

The 17-member delegation includes politicians from the biggest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan. The meeting between Lee and the delegation is scheduled for Feb. 11.

``I want to listen to Mr. Lee's policy towards North Korea,'' Kato said in a telephone interview. ``We also want to hear his views on economic policies and international finance.''

North Korea watchers in South Korea and Japan say Lee's policy toward the North is expected to be more business-like in contrast to outgoing President Roh Moo Hyun, who was criticized by conservatives of giving too much aid to Pyongyang as the country was developing a nuclear weapons program.

Kato and Taku Yamasaki, a former vice president of the LDP and another member of the delegation, met Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda last Friday to discuss the visit. Foreign policy should not reflect just one party's perspectives, but the country as a whole, Kato said he told the prime minister. Fukuda is expected to meet Lee after his inauguration on Feb 25.

Lee was born in Osaka, Japan, where his parents were working during the Japanese occupation of Korea, and grew up in Pohang in the southeastern region of South Korea. He became the chief executives of Hyundai Construction at the age of 36. Later he served as the mayor of Seoul.

Japan extended its economic sanctions against North Korea for six months in Oct. 2007, citing a lack of progress in resolving the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.

North Korea has admitted it kidnapped Japanese citizens, which defectors said were used as language instructors for North Korean spies. North Korea has returned five of the abductees and their relatives, and said they are the only survivors. Japan says 17 were abducted and is demanding a full account of their whereabouts and return.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hideko Takayama in Tokyo at htakayama10@bloomberg.net