TOP DIPLOMATS OF S.KOREA-JAPAN MEET

[Anchor Lead]

Foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan held a meeting in Tokyo yesterday. This is the first time in four years and seven months the top diplomats of the two countries sat down together for a two-way meeting. The meeting discussed bilateral pending issues, including paying damages to South Korean victims of wartime forced labor.

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Foreign Minister Park Jin held a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi in Tokyo on Monday. This is the first foreign ministers' meeting between the two countries since new administrations launched, respectively—the Yoon Suk-yeol administration in South Korea and the cabinet led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishda in Japan. The two top diplomats exchanged opinions on how to resolve the issue of paying damages to South Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor which is considered the largest diplomatic hurdle between the two nations. At the meeting, Park Jin highlighted activities of a government-civilian joint panel working on the issue. The foreign ministry in Seoul said the two ministers agreed on the need to resolve the issue before Japanese companies' assets in Korea are cashed in to compensate the victims.

[Soundbite] Park Jin(Foreign Minister(Before meeting)) : "S. Korea is operating a gov’t-civilian council on compensating S. Korean victims of wartime forced labor. The panel is coming up with multiple good opinions. I will introduce them to Japan and seek the most reasonable solution together."

Park and Hayashi also discussed the normalization of the General Security of Military Information Agreement and the withdrawal of Japan's export curbs on South Korea.

[Soundbite] Park Jin(Foreign Minister(Before meeting)) : "It is necessary for Japan to withdraw the export curbs, since economic security is getting more crucial amid disruptions in global supply chains."

The ministers also pledged to sternly deal with provocations from North Korea. They also discussed ways to encourage exchanges in the private sector, such as operating more flights linking Gimpo and Haneda. Park is the first South Korean foreign minister to visit Japan for a bilateral meeting since Kang Kyung-hwa made a trip in 2017. He visited Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Tuesday and coveyed President Yoon Suk-yeol's determination to improve relations with Tokyo.