Chinese, South Korean leaders visit Fukushima
Baku, May 22 (AZERTAC). Chinese and South Korean leaders chatted with evacuees and tasted local produce in Japan`s battered northeast on Saturday, in a show of support for a nation struggling with a humanitarian and nuclear crisis set off by a deadly earthquake and tsunami in March, Reuters reports.
Premier Wen Jiabao signalled Beijing`s willingness to ease restrictions on Japanese food imports imposed by China and other nations, including South Korea, after the disaster crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant and fanned contamination fears.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who hosts an annual summit of the region`s three leading economies this weekend, has counted on the event to help ease concerns at home and abroad about the safety of Japan`s nuclear facilities and farm exports.
In a symbolic gesture, Wen and South Korea`s President Lee Myung-bak met Kan in Fukushima city, about 60 km (37 miles) northwest of the stricken power plant that triggered the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Outside a sports complex that was turned into an evacuation centre after the quake, the three leaders ate local cucumbers, tomatoes and other produce to demonstrate the food was safe.
Wen and Lee were the first foreign leaders to visit Fukushima since the nuclear disaster.
"China is willing to continue relaxation towards importing Japanese agricultural and other goods, with the condition that safety is assured," Wen, dressed in trainers, blue shirt and a dark jacket, told reporters in Natori, a northeastern town heavily wrecked by the tsunami, he also visited.
Later, Japanese Trade Minister Banri Kaieda told reporters his Chinese counterpart has also assured him that Beijing would be more open to food imports.
"Of course, we will have inspections based on scientific evidence but we want to increase food imports from Japan," he quoted Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming as saying in talks in Tokyo. The remarks suggest a softening of China`s stance after Beijing`s and South Korea`s trade ministers last month rebuffed Japan`s call for more "reasonable" and limited restrictions.
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