Foreign Minister Taro Aso and his Chinese and South Korean counterparts agreed Thursday to try to hold a meeting of the foreign ministers of countries involved in the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear threat in a bid to bring Pyongyang back to the multilateral process.
In two separate meetings, Aso remained apart from the ministers on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Tokyo's war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, according to Japanese government officials. The trips have been a major contributing issue to deteriorated ties.
Aso met with China's Li Zhaoxing and South Korea's Ban Ki Moon on the sidelines of a series of talks in the Malaysian capital hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.