South Korea is planning a meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in New York on the sidelines of an upcoming UN General Assembly, a senior South Korean government official said on Monday.
Yoon has yet to hold formal bilateral talks with Kishida since winning the presidential election in March. There have been signs of a thaw in bilateral relations under the leadership of Yoon, who called for a forward-looking approach to bilateral relations.
Combined Shoto shows Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (L) and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. (Kyodo)
The official said a Yoon-Kishida meeting on the sidelines of the UN rally would likely be informal.
The possible face-to-face meeting would come at a time when Japan and South Korea are locked in a long-running dispute over wartime labor compensation linked to a South Korean Supreme Court ruling in 2018, and Seoul is looking for an alternative solution. to avoid a diplomatic row.
The leaders of Japan and South Korea last held formal bilateral talks in December 2019.
In June, Yoon and Kishida met for the first time in Madrid to attend a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit as Asia-Pacific partner countries, but they only spoke. briefly.
The two, however, joined trilateral talks with the United States on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
Lawmakers from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party have been cautious about summit talks between Kishida and Yoon as they have pressed South Korea to present Japan with an acceptable solution to a dispute over court-ordered liquidations. certain assets of the Japanese company.
South Korea’s highest court had ruled that groups of South Koreans were forced to work in Japan during its 1910-1945 colonial rule on the Korean Peninsula, ordering two Japanese companies to pay damages.
But the companies have not complied with the compensation order, as the Japanese government maintains that all claims arising from its colonial rule have been “completely and finally” settled under a bilateral agreement signed in 1965.
The plaintiffs in the cases then had some of the companies’ assets in South Korea seized by the courts with the intention of liquidating them.
Relations between Japan and South Korea have improved since hitting their lowest point in years under the administration of Yoon’s predecessor, Moon Jae In, over wartime history issues. .
After attending the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London, Yoon will fly to New York and then travel to Canada.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220913/p2g/00m/0in/005000c
Category: Japan, Korea
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