Gorbachev agreed to address islands dispute in 1988 with Nakasone

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged the need to resolve a dispute with Japan over the sovereignty of a group of islands lying off Hokkaido in a 1988 meeting, diplomatic records declassified Wednesday showed.Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone elicited that response from Gorbachev when he was invited to the meeting in Moscow on July 22 that year, according to the records, which are labelled "top secret" and "urgent."Calling the Soviet invasion of the islands soon after Japan's surrender in World War II "Stalin's mistake," Nakasone said the dispute should be settl…READ FULL ARTICLE