Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin have met in Tokyo and agreed on the need to speed up the resolution of issues existing between their countries, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said on Monday
TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th July, 2022) Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin have met in Tokyo and agreed on the need to speed up the resolution of issues existing between their countries, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
"Minister Hayashi stated the need to develop Japan-South Korea relations on the basis of friendship and cooperation achieved after the normalization of relations in 1965. This requires resolving complex problems between the two countries, starting with the issue of Korean labor," the ministry said in a statement.
In 2018, the South Korean Supreme Court ruled that Japanese companies Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, Fujikoshi Corporation and Mitsui Heavy Industries must compensate four South Korean nationals for using forced labor during the Second World War. The decision provoked an outcry in Japan, which claimed that the 1965 agreement between the two countries had resolved the issue of damages once and for all.
The Japanese companies did not pay the compensation and their assets in South Korea ended up arrested to then be cashed out.
"Foreign Minister Park said he would make efforts to ensure that a solution could be found before cashing out. Both sides expressed their support for a speedy solution of this problem," the statement read.
The South Korean official also expressed his condolences over the death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the meeting.
This is Park's first official visit to Japan since taking office and the first visit to Japan by a South Korean foreign minister since 2019.
