South Korean and Japanese officials held a pre-summit meeting on Wednesday, November 24th, 2021, in preparation for the upcoming leaders’ meeting. The meeting was held in Tokyo and was attended by South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi.
The meeting was held ahead of a planned summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, which is expected to take place in early December. The summit will be the first between the two leaders since Kishida took office in October.
The pre-summit meeting was aimed at laying the groundwork for the leaders’ meeting and discussing issues of mutual concern. The two sides reportedly discussed a range of issues, including North Korea’s nuclear program, regional security, and economic cooperation.
One of the main issues on the agenda was the ongoing dispute over wartime forced labor compensation. South Korea has been calling on Japan to compensate Korean victims of forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Japan maintains that all claims were settled under a 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.
The issue has been a major source of tension between the two countries in recent years, with South Korea’s Supreme Court ruling in 2018 that Japanese companies must compensate Korean victims of forced labor. Japan has refused to comply with the ruling, leading to a trade dispute between the two countries and a deterioration in their bilateral relations.
Another issue discussed at the pre-summit meeting was North Korea’s nuclear program. Both South Korea and Japan have been working to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and have been involved in talks with North Korea in the past. However, progress has been slow, and tensions have risen in recent years following North Korea’s continued missile tests and nuclear development.
The two sides also discussed regional security issues, including China’s growing military presence in the region and the ongoing tensions between China and Taiwan. Both South Korea and Japan have close ties with the United States and have been working to strengthen their security cooperation in the face of growing regional challenges.
Overall, the pre-summit meeting between South Korean and Japanese officials was an important step in preparing for the upcoming leaders’ meeting. While there are still significant issues to be addressed, including the wartime forced labor compensation dispute, the meeting was a positive sign that both sides are willing to engage in dialogue and work towards improving their bilateral relations.
