South Korea will cooperate with Japan in its efforts to rebuild its economy hit by the March earthquake and the recent credit ratings downgrade, the nation's top economic policymaker said Thursday. "We hope that the Japanese economy will recover from the shocks of the earthquake as quickly as possible," Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan told an economic policy coordination meeting. "We will cooperate with Japan to get its economy back on track." Japan was hard hit by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11 that left at least 15,500 people dead and devastated many of its industrial and manufacturing facilities.