TOKYO: President Yoon Suk-yeol expressed his desire to strengthen ties with Japan during a courtesy call that South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin paid to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday.
The meeting at the official Tokyo house of the Japanese prime minister showed an effort to mend the bilateral ties strained over the trade and history of the Second World War. During the 20-minute discussion between Park and Kishida, the two sides also discussed the topics of Japan's forced labour during the war and sexual slavery, Park said.
Tuesday's meeting followed Park's discussions with his Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi the earlier day, which focused on restoring the relationship.
Park and Hayashi agreed at their discussion on Monday that there needs to be a quick resolution to the problems with the Koreans who were compelled to work under Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945. Tens of thousands of Asian women and girls were coerced or abducted by Japanese soldiers during World War II and forced to work as sex slaves in military brothels serving Japanese soldiers.
Seoul maintains that many of the women who were forced into sexual slavery came from the Korean Peninsula as well as other regions of Asia, and they were generally referred to as "comfort women" in a euphemistic manner. The "comfort women" controversy has not been resolved because the surviving victims' wishes have not been taken into account, it said.
Tuesday, Park also spoke with a cross-party group of Japanese attorneys on fostering interactions between the two nations.
South Korean Foreign Minister to visit Japan next week
'Japanese fever' wreaks havoc in this state again, 16 people lost their lives
US, S.Korea, Japan FMs hold talks in Bali on N. Korea