Director-General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Takizaki Shigeki and his South Korean counterpart Kim Jung-han have met in Seoul to discuss the issue of wartime labor, which has long been a point of contention souring bilateral relations, NHK World-Japan reported on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th October, 2020) Director-General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Takizaki Shigeki and his South Korean counterpart Kim Jung-han have met in Seoul to discuss the issue of wartime labor, which has long been a point of contention souring bilateral relations, NHK World-Japan reported on Thursday.
Tazaki reaffirmed the Japanese government's position that all war-time South Korean compensation claims were settled completely in 1965, when the countries normalized their relations.
On his part, Kim recalled that the South Korean Supreme Court in 2018 ordered a Japanese company to compensate the Korean men who had been forced to work for it during the Second World War.
The parties agreed to continue dialogue on the matter.
Besides, the diplomats discussed the issue of radioactive water disposal from the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima. Takizaki assured his counterpart that Japan would inform South Korea, China and other neighboring countries on its actions regarding the issue.
In 1910, Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan and was considered to be a part of Japan until 1945. During the occupation, Japanese authorities exploited the Korean population, which was forced to work for Japanese companies. This and other issues, which are deep-rooted in the period of the Japanese occupation of Korea, remained sources of serious tensions in the states' relations.
