29 January 2009 1116 hrs (SST)TOKYO: US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso agreed Thursday to cooperate on North Korea's abductions of Japanese, an issue that has caused a rift between the allies, Tokyo said.
Obama and Aso held a 10-minute telephone conversation, their first since the US president took office last week, and discussed a range of matters including the global economic crisis, the Japanese foreign ministry said.
"Prime Minister Aso and President Obama agreed to work hand in hand" in "securing peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region," a ministry statement said.
Photo: A photo exhibition in Tokyo in 2006 shows Megumi Yokota before she was abducted by North Korea in November 1977.The leaders agreed to address "North Korean issues including the abduction issue and to further strengthen the Japan-US alliance," it said.
kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies in Japanese language and culture.
Aso, a conservative who is struggling in opinion polls, faced opposition criticism last year for failing to stop the United States from removing North Korea from a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.
The United States took the action as part of a denuclearisation deal, but Japan had wanted further movement on the abduction row.
Japanese politicians and media place immense significance on how Washington treats Tokyo compared with emerging powers, with some jittery that the Obama administration is more inclined to work with China than Japan.
Japan-US ties reached new heights during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi, who cultivated a close relationship with then-US president George W. Bush and took the landmark step of sending troops to Iraq.
- AFP/yb
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