Relations thawed after Yoon’s conservative government in March announced a domestically contentious plan to use local corporate funds to compensate the forced labor victims without demanding Japanese contributions. efforts to build a stronger alliance to counter challenges posed by North Korea and China. The wrangling led to the countries downgrading each other’s trade status and Seoul’s previous liberal government threatening to spike a military intelligence-sharing pact. Those rulings irked Japan, which insists all compensation issues were settled by a 1965 treaty that normalized relations. The back-to-back summits were largely meant to resolve bitter disputes triggered by South Korean court rulings in 2018 that ordered two Japanese companies to compensate some of their former Korean employees for forced labor before the end of World War II. It's the first exchange of visits between the leaders of the countries in 12 years. Kishida’s visit to Seoul reciprocated a mid-March trip to Tokyo by Yoon. Kishida, who earlier on Monday separately met with groups of South Korean lawmakers and business leaders, stressed the need for facilitating people-to-people exchanges between the countries, which he said would “help further promote our mutual understanding and give widths and thickness to our relations.” Speaking to reporters before departing Seoul, Kishida said he hoped to further strengthen his personal relationship with Yoon and “work together to carve out a new era.” Yoon during a meeting with his chief sectaries on Monday instructed them to establish follow-up measures to carry out bilateral security, economic and technology cooperation and facilitate culture and youth exchanges between the countries, which were discussed in his meeting with Kishida. While South Korea isn’t a G-7 country, Yoon was invited as one of eight outreach nations. Yoon, Kishida and President Joe Biden are expected to hold a trilateral meeting later this month on the sidelines of the Group of Seven meetings in Hiroshima to discuss North Korea and geopolitical uncertainties created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s assertive foreign policy. Yoon also said he wouldn’t rule out Japan’s possible participation in future nuclear deterrence consultations between Washington and Seoul to better cope with North Korean nuclear threats. allies are finally moving forward after years of bickering as they step up their three-way partnership with Washington.Īfter the summit, Yoon said Seoul, Tokyo and Washington are engaging in talks to implement their earlier agreement on a faster exchange of information on North Korean missile tests. Others saw the summit as a sign that the two key U.S. Critics, including Yoon’s liberal opponents who control majority in the National Assembly, said Kishida’s comments fell short of a meaningful apology and accused Yoon of letting Japan off the hook over its past aggressions while pushing to repair bilateral ties. The summit, which was the second meeting between the leaders in less than two months, drew a mixed reaction in South Korea.
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