REFILING: Japan hopes to confirm cooperation with China, S. Korea on North

TOKYO, Oct. 7 Kyodo -
Japan hopes to confirm cooperation with China and South Korea at Saturday's
trilateral summit meeting in addressing the North Korean nuclear, ballistic
missile and abduction issues, Japanese officials said Wednesday.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will also call on his Chinese and South
Korean counterparts for their countries' cooperation in taking measures to
combat global warming and for their understanding about the ''East Asian
community'' concept he has advocated, the officials said.
Hatoyama, who took office in mid-September, will kick off his first Asian tour
on Friday, meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak in Seoul in the
morning, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
The Japanese leader is scheduled to meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and
Lee at the trilateral summit meeting in Beijing on Saturday morning, while also
meeting Wen bilaterally on the fringes of the trilateral talks.
At the three-way talks, the leaders plan to issue their first joint statement
on the environment, which will commit their countries to cooperating concretely
in creating a recycling-oriented economy that balances economic growth with
environmental protection, a ministry official said.
They also plan to issue a statement that maps out a wide range of areas in
which cooperation is to be deepened between the three countries, such as
business, trade, finance, academia and the media, the official said.
What is likely to top the agenda, however, is North Korea as the trilateral
meeting comes just days after Wen met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in
Pyongyang.
In the meeting with Wen on Monday, Kim reportedly expressed his readiness to
return to the stalled six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea if the
North's relations with the United States improve.
Although Kim referred for the first time to the possibility of North Korea's
return to the talks since it declared its withdrawal from them in April, it is
not clear if his overtures will lead to a resumption of the talks.
At the trilateral meeting, Wen is expected to brief Hatoyama and Lee on his
meeting with Kim, Japanese officials said.
''There is no doubt that the issue of North Korea will be the one big theme at
the summit meeting between Japan, China and South Korea,'' Japanese Foreign
Minister Katsuya Okada told reporters on Wednesday. ''It's very important to
listen to and discuss various things because Premier Wen has been to North
Korea himself.''
In a meeting in Shanghai late last month, the foreign ministers of Japan, China
and South Korea urged North Korea to return swiftly to the six-party talks,
which involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
The ministers also vowed to promote regional economic cooperation with the East
Asian community concept, while agreeing to work to ensure the success of a key
U.N. climate change conference in December in Copenhagen.
A likely topic in the summit meeting between Hatoyama and Lee on Friday is the
issue of giving permanent residents of Korean descent in Japan the right to
vote in local elections -- something South Korea has called for Japan to
implement.
The possible resumption of the suspended talks on forging an economic
partnership agreement between the two countries may also be discussed,
according to the officials.
==Kyodo