Korean, Japanese top envoys meet in New York

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Korean, Japanese top envoys meet in New York

Foreign Minister Park Jin, right, meets with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi at a hotel in New York on Monday. [NEWS1]

Foreign Minister Park Jin, right, meets with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi at a hotel in New York on Monday. [NEWS1]

The foreign ministers of Korea and Japan discussed compensation for forced laborers in World War II in New York on Monday.
 
In a 55-minute meeting held on Monday at a hotel ahead of a UN General Assembly meeting, Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin conveyed the position of forced labor victims in Korea to Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.
 

“Park called for a sincere response from Japan, after sharing what he heard in person from victims, as well as from a variety of experts in Korea,” a ministry official told the press after the meeting in New York.  
 
Hayashi was said to have agreed to the need for both nations to “continue the dialogue and cooperation.” 
 
The meeting took place a day before the UN General Assembly kicked off Tuesday with the flying in of many government leaders, including from Korea and Japan. 
 
Expectations were high for a meeting between President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida taking place in New York, but whether it would be a summit or a casual handshake wasn't clear.
 
The Yoon government said Thursday it was working on a summit, which would be the first in almost three years.
 
During a press conference in Tokyo prior to his departure for New York on Tuesday, Kishida deflected a direct answer and said "Nothing’s been set yet” about a meeting.
 
The last Korea-Japan leaders' summit was between President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in December 2019 on the sidelines of a Korea-Japan-China summit in Chengdu, China. 
 
Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have suffered over historical disputes, trade spats and even threats to end a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact signed in 2012 and renewed annually.
 
The historical disputes include compensation for Korean victims of Japanese wartime forced labor.  
 
On Oct. 30, 2018, the Korean Supreme Court ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, renamed Nippon Steel, to pay 100 million won ($72,000) each to Korean victims of Japanese forced labor during World War II. It made a similar ruling on Nov. 29, 2018 against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
 
Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi refused to comply with the rulings, leading to a drawn-out legal process, a move that escalated tensions between Seoul and Tokyo.
 
In a series of meetings that the Foreign Ministry hosted with some victims and experts recently, participants reached a tentative consensus that the victims want the Japanese companies to apologize and compensate them, and that they are not open to having the Korean government step in to compensate them instead.
 
One of the possible alternatives reportedly discussed at the meetings was a compensation fund put together by Japanese and Korean companies.
 
In the meeting on Monday, the two foreign ministers also discussed denuclearization of North Korea, as well as U.S.-Korea-Japan cooperation on regional security, according to the Foreign Ministry.
 

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]
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