Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan will reportedly propose the resumption of free trade negotiations during summit talks with President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday.

Lee and Kan will meet on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Yokohama, Japan, this weekend.

Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun says bilateral talks on the signing of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with South Korea came up short in 2004 but a Japanese Diet meeting this week decided to resume the trade talks.

South Korea and Japan launched EPA talks in late 2003 in hopes of expanding bilateral trade and investment. But the talks fell apart as Seoul called on Tokyo to ease a chronic trade imbalance while Japan balked at opening its agricultural market.