Taro Aso, the Japanese prime minister, called for cooperation with South Korea to overcome the global financial turmoil as he began a two-day visit to Seoul on Sunday. Aso was scheduled to meet President Lee Myung Bak on Monday to discuss economic cooperation and international efforts to end the North Korean nuclear standoff.

Since taking office 11 months ago, Lee has called for better ties with Japan and has held five summit meetings with Japanese leaders. He resumed top-level visits, which had been suspended in 2005 to protest repeated trips to a controversial Tokyo war shrine by a former prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi.

Lee has also said he will not demand a new apology from Tokyo over its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, which ended in 1945. Japanese leaders have repeatedly issued apologies over their country's past wrongdoing but many South Koreans say they are insincere and demand a new one.

After his arrival, Aso attended a business forum in Seoul where he said the two countries should cooperate to surmount the global financial crisis. "Today, the Japan-South Korea relationship is getting closer and becoming one that is unshakable," Aso said.