Lee gives Japan hope for united front against North  by Kaho
Shimizu  The inauguration of a new South Korean administration
this month will bring Tokyo, Seoul and Washington closer to a
unified position on how to deal with North Korea, while Japan’s
concerns that it might be left behind by the U.S. diminish as
Pyongyang delays disclosing its nuclear programs, experts and
government officials say.  “The change of government in South
Korea will have a positive impact” on Japan and the six-party
talks on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, said Hitoshi Tanaka, a
former diplomat and now a senior fellow at the nonprofit think
tank Japan Center for International Exchange. Tanaka was Japan’s
top negotiator with the North and engineered the historic
September 2002 Pyongyang summit between Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi and Kim Jong Il.  Lee Myung Bak, who on Feb. 25 will
take over as president of South Korea, has promised to improve
ties with Japan and the U.S., which have been strained under Roh
Moo Hyun, and to revi