Diplomacy tested as Japan, Koreas remember

Kim Dae-jung is urging more talks between the United States and North Korea

By staff and wires

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's President Kim Dae-jung has urged the United States and North Korea to accelerate efforts to help ease tension on the divided Korean Peninsula.

In a speech Wednesday marking the 56th anniversary of the peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Kim also said a U.S. military presence would be necessary even if the Koreas reunified.

Referring to his stalled engagement policy with North Korea's communist government, Kim said: "Despite the current situation, the 'sunshine' policy should be implemented by all means."

"I hope that Washington makes its best efforts to resume talks with Pyongyang," he told a gathering of 3,000 people at Independence Memorial Hall near Chonan in central South Korea.

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"Pyongyang should also engage in the talks with Washington more actively."

The celebration of Liberation Day on the Korean peninsula also falls on the same day, August 15, as Japan commemorates its surrender to end World War Two.

This year, the anniversaries come at a particularly prickly time for diplomacy across the Korea Strait, which separates Japan from North and South Korea.

Relations have been soured by the publishing of school textbooks in Japan that critics say wash over the nation's wartime behavior.

Controversy also erupted after recently installed Japanese Prime Minister Juhichiro Koizumi promised to visit a memorial to Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including many who were executed as war criminals.

Koizumi visited the Yasukuni Shrine on Monday, avoiding a more symbolic visit on the surrender anniversary but still triggering a wave of protest from Japan's immediate neighbors.

Despite the protests, four cabinet ministers and 120 lawmakers were expected to pray at Yasukuni on Wednesday.

Conflict of views

While Koizumi has argued that he visited the shrine to pay homage to those who gave their lives for Japan, the move was seen in Beijing and Seoul as a sign that Tokyo is not willing to atone for its wartime sins.

"History does not only concern the past, but also things present and things yet to come," Kim said.

"How can we make good friends with people who try to forget and ignore the many pains they inflicted on us? How can we deal with them in the future with any degree of trust? Those are questions that we have about the Japanese."

While Kim expressed concern about strained relations over both the controversial textbooks and Koizumi's visit to the Yakusuni Shrine, discontent was also apparent on the Japanese side.

The Yomiuri newspaper on Wednesday issued a harsh rebuke to Chinese allegations that dangerous nationalist sentiment was building in Japan.

"Of course, we should not forget that Japan in the past has caused significant damage to China because of its aggression," the Yomiuri said in an editorial.

"However, that does not mean that we have to entirely accept China's interpretation of history."

Korean reunification

The popular Koizumi has been accused by China and Korea of stirring up nationalistic sentiments

Meanwhile, Kim, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to open up relations with Pyongyang, said U.S. forces would be needed in South Korea "even after eventual reunification for the sake of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia."

Some 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against military threats from North Korea.

Earlier this month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il demanded an end to that presence.

Official inter-Korean exchanges that thrived after the first-ever summit of leaders of the two Koreas last year have come to a standstill because of tension between the United States and North Korea.

After a policy review, U.S. President George W. Bush offered to reopen dialogue with North Korea in June.