Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono expressed hopes for improved relations with China during talks Sunday in Beijing that also touched on joint efforts to counter North Korea's nuclear program. Wang said China had noted positive remarks about the relationship from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but that difficulties still remain. Japan has pushed for stricter measures against North Korea, which fired a ballistic missile over the Japanese island of Hokkaido in August. China and Japan experienced a major break in relations in 2012, after Beijing responded furiously to Japan's nationalization of uninhabited East China Sea islands that Tokyo controls but which China claims. Hopes for further reconciliation rose in November when officials from Japan, South Korea and China met in the Philippines to discuss the possibility of again holding a trilateral summit between them.

Source: ABC News January 28, 2018 04:14 UTC