Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged the need to resolve the dispute with Japan over the sovereignty of a group of islands off Hokkaido in a 1988 meeting, diplomatic records declassified Wednesday show.
Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone elicited the response from Gorbachev when he was invited for talks in Moscow on July 22 of that year, according to the records that were labeled "top secret" and "urgent."
Calling the Soviet invasion of the islands soon after Japan's surrender in World War II "Stalin's mistake," Nakasone said the dispute should be settled based on a 1956 joint declaration that set a path for the countries to ink a formal peace treaty.