South Korea and Japan called Friday for a 'fundamental change' in North Korea's attitude in order to end the nuclear standoff, and said sanctions should stay in force till then. 'Leaders of the two countries agreed that a fundamental change in North Korea's attitude is required to solve the North Korea nuclear issue,' President Lee Myung-Bak said after talks with Japan's new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. The two will Saturday join Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing for a three-way summit expected to be dominated by the North's nuclear ambitions. After their own summit Friday, Lee and Hatoyama agreed the time is not right to ease pressure on Pyongyang despite its conditional offer this week to return to disarmament negotiations. Lee said they agreed to continue diplomatic efforts to bring North Korea back to the six-party negotiations soon, while 'faithfully implementing' fresh United Nations sanctions imposed in June after the North's second atomic test. 'Through cooperation by Japan and South Korea and also through cooperation with the United States and China, it is important to get it (North Korea) back to the table of the six-way talks as early as possible,' Hatoyama said. On Monday the North's leader Kim Jong-Il told Wen in Pyongyang that his country is ready to return to the talks it abandoned in April -- but only if it is first granted direct negotiations with the United States. China hosts the talks, which also group the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the United States. Lee said he expects Pyongyang to return to the multilateral negotiations following talks with the United States. But he restated his call for a 'grand bargain' rather than the step-by-step negotiations of recent years. Hatoyama gave full backing to this approach. Lee proposes offering his neighbour massive aid and diplomatic and security guarantees in return for a firm commitment to total denuclearisation. 'We agreed on the need for a fundamental and comprehensive solution to the North Korean nuclear issue that will not lead to the negotiation tactics of the past,' Lee told a joint press conference. To solve the issue in a single step, he said, 'We agreed to maintain close consultations with participants in six-party negotiations.' The grand bargain policy is 'extremely correct,' Hatoyama said. 'We should not provide economic aid unless the North signals a specific action or willingness comprehensively to (end) nuclear and missile development.' Hatoyama also said Japan must solve the emotionally charged abduction issue. Tokyo insists Pyongyang account fully for all the Japanese it kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies. 'The president said Japan's abduction issue is of course included in the (grand bargain) package,' he said. 'I appreciate it very much.' Hatoyama's Seoul visit marks his debut on the regional stage. His centre-left government took office in mid-September, signalling a more conciliatory diplomacy with Asia. Ties between South Korea and Japan, which colonised the peninsula between 1910-45, have often been prickly due to historical and territorial disputes. But Lee has expressed hopes relations will improve further under Hatoyama, who has pledged not to visit a controversial Tokyo war shrine. Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada this week raised the possibility of writing history textbooks jointly with South Korea and China, which have accused Tokyo of distorting its 20th century history. 'I have always stressed that we need to have the courage to face up to history,' Hatoyama said. 'I said (in the summit) that my new government has the courage to look straight at history.' Asked about Lee's proposal that Emperor Akihito visit Seoul next year, the 100th anniversary of colonisation, Hatoyama said he appreciates the invitation but declined to give an immediate answer. 