Japan, South Korea to talk island dispute

Japanese and South Korean leaders will meet this month to defuse tensions over disputed islands in the Sea of Japan, Japanese officials announced. Unidentified sources told the Kyodo news agency Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and President Lee Myung-bak would meet in a formal setting on the sidelines sometime during the Cambodia summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Phnom Penh, which runs Nov. 18-20. Japan has long claimed sovereignty to the islands it calls Takeshima, while Seoul also claims them and calls them Dokdo. On Aug. 10, the South Korean president visited one of the islands for the first time, setting off diplomatic protests from Tokyo, the report said. The two countries' leaders last spoke formally in Beijing in May, Kyodo said.