President Kim Visits Japan

President Kim Dae Jung and the first lady Lee Hee Ho together arrived in Tokyo for their state visit to Japan.
President Kim participated in the Japanese government's official reception and moved to the Emperor's palace to meet Emperor Akihito. In his reply address Kim said, 'The two leaders of Korea and Japan should recognize the historic definition among us and lead to joint cooperation. The current Asian economic turbulence and the new order after the Cold War require the two sides' close friendship.'
He continued, 'We whould respect each other while extracting fruitful results and I expect Japan's role in an Asian economic recovery.' One important feature of his speech that is significant was he called Akihito 'His Majesty Emperor' twice. Koreans have preferred to use the lesser title of 'King' until now. It will be interpreted as a positive attitude for future relations including importing Japanese culture. Akihito apologied saying in his speech, 'Japan had brought huge pain into Koreans in early 1900s and the deep sadness I always keep into my heart.'
The President then went to the New Otani Hotel and held a reception for Japanese Koreans in which he promised their stable human rights to be official and immutable in Japan.