Chinese FM visits Japan for talks on regional issues

TOKYO, Apr 15 (AFP): Chinese Foreign Minister (FM) Wang Yi Sunday began a visit to Japan described as a major step forward in improving frosty relations, as Tokyo tries to stay involved in a flurry of international diplomacy over North Korea.

Wang met his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono in talks expected to touch on economic relations, territorial disputes in the East China Sea and ways to push the North to give up its nuclear weapons.

"I would like to regard (Wang's visit) as a major step forward in our efforts towards improving Japan-China relations," Kono told Wang at the start of their meeting at the Iikura Guest House.

Wang said his visit was China's answer to "positive" messages and policies by Japan.

"We are also faced with some complex and sensitive elements," said Wang, a veteran Japan expert who is a former ambassador to Tokyo.

"But together with Japan's efforts... we would like to bring China-Japan relations back on a path of sustainable and normal development."

The world's second and third largest economies have a fraught relationship, complicated by longstanding disputes over maritime claims and Japan's wartime legacy.

But Tokyo is eager to get the relationship back on firmer footing, especially as it fears being shut out of negotiations on North Korea's nuclear programme in which Beijing is likely to be a major player.

China demonstrated its significant influence over its reclusive ally when President Xi Jinping hosted Kim Jong-un and his wife in Beijing last month.

Japan hopes to expand its exchanges with China to stay involved as international efforts to engage with the North intensify. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump are preparing for separate direct talks with Kim.

Kono, who visited Beijing in January, stressed that Japan and China share the same goal on North Korea.

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally greeted a top Chinese official in Pyongyang and called for stronger ties with Beijing, state media said Sunday, as the traditional allies seek to heal battered relations.

Kim met Song Tao, head of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee's international department, who was leading an art troupe to a spring festival in the North's capital.

The delegation arrived just weeks after Kim made a surprise visit to Beijing and met Chinese President Xi Jinping, signalling an attempt by both leaders to shore up a key alliance ahead of a period of high-stakes diplomacy.