Yoon Suk-yeol to speak with Japan's Fumio Kishida amid North Korean missile launches

President Yoon Suk-yeol, left, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shake hands ahead of a bilateral meeting in New York on Sept. 21. [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk-yeol is set to speak by phone with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday following a series of North Korean missile tests that included a launch over Japan.

The plan for a phone call was announced Wednesday, a day after North Korea fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that flew over Japan before crashing into the Pacific Ocean.

The launch was the biggest provocation by North Korea in years and sent the Japanese people scrambling to evacuate while suspending train operations in some areas.

On Thursday morning, North Korea fired two more short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) into the East Sea in its sixth launch in under two weeks.

Yoon and Kishida are expected to coordinate the two countries' response to the North's provocations and discuss ways to strengthen trilateral cooperation with the United States.

The two held their first one-on-one talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last month, sharing "serious concern" about North Korea's nuclear program, including the possibility of a seventh nuclear test and its recent adoption of a law mandating the use of nuclear weapons in scenarios where its leadership is under threat.

Yoon and Kishida also agreed on the need to improve relations between the two countries by resolving pending issues, the presidential office said.

The two countries have been locked in a protracted row over wartime forced labor and other issues related to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Yonhap