Japanese PM hopes to implement peace treaty in Moscow visit

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Russia Thursday for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said Tuesday. While the North Korean crisis will no doubt be discussed, as well as political, trade, humanitarian and economic cooperation, Abe hopes to implement a historic agreement for formally ending World War II which was not signed when Putin visited Tokyo eleven years ago. They were unable to agree on a chain of islands the Soviet Union seized off Japan’s northern coast in 1945. This dispute has marred relations ever since.