Korean, Japanese top envoys meet in Tokyo

Diplomacy

Published: 18 Jul. 2022, 18:32 Updated: 18 Jul. 2022, 18:36

Korean, Japanese top envoys meet in Tokyo

Foreign Minister Park Jin, left, meets with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, right, at the Ikura State House on Monday. [YONHAP]

Foreign Minister Park Jin met with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi in Tokyo on Monday, the first time in nearly five years the countries' top envoys had such a meeting.

"I intend to openly discuss various pending issues between Korea and Japan so that we can find a good solution that meets the common interests of both countries," Park told a group of reporters at Gimpo Airport before boarding the plane to Tokyo on Monday.

Upon his arrival at Haneda Airport, Park told reporters that he expected to discuss with Hayashi the forced labor issue and the renewal of the Korea-Japan military intelligence pact, the General Security of Military Information Agreement (Gsomia).

Park and Hayashi met at the Ikura State House at around 4 p.m., continuing their meeting over dinner.

Park's team was also reported to be scheduling a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

"If the meeting takes place, I intend to convey President Yoon Suk-yeol's commitment to improving relations with Japan," said Park.

The Foreign Ministry said Park will convey condolences on the death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in his meetings in Tokyo through Wednesday.

Following the assassination of Abe on July 8, the Yoon government said it will send a special delegation led by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to attend Abe’s official memorial service, said to be scheduled this fall.

Park’s visit is the first by a Korean foreign minister to Tokyo to meet with Japan's top envoy since December 2017 and is a sign of attempts to improve relations.

Yoon’s foreign policy team has stressed the need to revitalize ties with Japan, including on the security front, and numerous trilateral meetings have been hosted in recent months, including a trilateral summit of the leaders of Korea, Japan and the United States on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Madrid on June 29.

Yoon and Kishida met several times on the sidelines of the NATO summit, although no official summit was held. The last leaders' summit between Japan and Korea took place in Beijing in December 2019.

Seoul and Tokyo have faced deteriorated bilateral relations in recent years due to historical issues stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, such as compensation for forced laborers and wartime sexual slavery victims.

In 2018, the Korean Supreme Court made landmark rulings ordering two Japanese companies to individually compensate Korean victims of forced labor during World War II.

Tokyo says that resolving those compensation rulings is a prerequisite for improving relations with Korea.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue a final verdict as early as August on whether to allow the liquidation of assets held by the Japanese companies.

Following the court rulings, Japan imposed export restrictions on Korea in 2019,

In response, the Moon Jae-in government put off the expiration of the Gsomia "conditionally" after initially withdrawing from the military intelligence-sharing pact.

Yoon’s foreign policy team, including Park, have repeatedly called for the normalization of Gsomia.

The Foreign Ministry also launched earlier this month a public-private committee on the forced labor issue, which held its second meeting last Thursday.

BY LEE YOUNG-HEE, ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]