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Japan nuclear: Kan, Lee and Wen agree early warning | |
(about 6 hours later) | |
The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea have agreed to set up an early warning system to alert each other of emergencies at nuclear facilities. | |
Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan agreed to the measure after a meeting in Tokyo with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. | |
The leaders said nuclear experts would also share more data in future. | |
Japan was hit by an earthquake and tsunami on 11 March, which wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. | |
Workers at Fukushima are still battling to control the stricken facility, which is leaking radioactive material. | |
China and South Korea have been critical of Japan's handling of the crisis in recent weeks. | |
But the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says the meeting was designed to show solidarity after the earthquake and tsunami. | |
In a href="http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/05/92609.html" title="full text of statement on Kyodo website" >joint statement the three leaders promised they would work more closely on nuclear issues. | |
"We decided to strengthen co-operation in information sharing. In addition, we also decided to start discussion on establishing early notification framework in case of emergency and exchanging experts," the statement said. | |
The three leaders also said that the international community needed to learn the lessons of the Fukushima crisis. | |
South Korea and China had previously expressed concern that the nuclear leak was having an impact on food safety across the region. | |
But Mr Kan has been keen to highlight that food from his country is not contaminated. | |
During a photo opportunity on Saturday, Mr Wen and Mr Lee both ate food in the Fukushima prefecture. | |
Mr Wen and Mr Lee are the first foreign leaders to visit Fukushima - about 220km (136 miles) north-east of Tokyo - since the disaster. | Mr Wen and Mr Lee are the first foreign leaders to visit Fukushima - about 220km (136 miles) north-east of Tokyo - since the disaster. |
Mr Lee said South Korea would do all it could to help reconstruction work in Japan. | |
The leaders of the three countries have met on an informal basis for a decade. Since 2008, they have held an annual meeting. | |
The massive earthquake tsunami left more than 24,000 people dead or missing. |