Kishida, Yoon hold summit as Japan, South Korea hold first bilateral talks since 2019, seek stronger ties

First meeting between countries in three years was a chance to find a resolution of Korean labour conscripted to work in Japanese factories during WWII

Japan’s Foreign Ministry said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korea’s Yoon Suk-Yeol agreed to further cooperate in their response to North Korea

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South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida before their meeting in New York on Wednesday. The two leaders agreed to accelerate efforts to mend ties frayed over Japan’s past colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Photo: Yonhap via AP

Published: 11:25am, 22 Sep 2022Updated: 12:27pm, 22 Sep 2022

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held their first one-on-one talks on Wednesday and agreed on the need to improve relations dogged by historical disputes.

The meeting took place in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the first such talks between leaders of the two countries since 2019.

Yoon, who took office in May, has been keen to improve relations with Tokyo, which have been plagued by disputes stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonisation of the Korean peninsula, at a time when both countries face North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats. Japan has also stressed the importance of strategic cooperation.

“The two leaders agreed on the need to improve relations by resolving pending issues, for which they agreed to accelerate diplomatic talks while continuing discussions between themselves,” Yoon’s deputy spokesperson, Lee Jae-myoung, said in a statement.

Lee said the leaders shared serious concerns about North Korea’s nuclear programme, including its recent law authorising first use of nuclear weapons and the possibility of a resumption of nuclear testing for the first time since 2017.