New Foreign Minister Taro Aso and South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon agreed Wednesday to work on improving strained bilateral ties and to meet later this month in South Korea, Foreign Ministry officials said.
The two talked over the phone for the first time since Aso took the foreign ministerial post in Monday's Cabinet reshuffle. Aso made the phone call to Ban.
Ban was quoted as telling Aso it is "regrettable" that relations have come to a standstill over differences in the interpretation of the two nations' shared history.
It would be "undesirable" to keep relations stagnant, Ban said, calling for Aso to exert strong leadership in mending the ties.
The two agreed to meet on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum planned for Nov. 15 and 16 in Pusan, the officials said.
The ministers discussed the issue of "the perception of history," said Yoshinori Katori, press secretary at the Foreign Ministry.
He did not explicitly say if there was a reference to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine.
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