Japan, South Korea to hold summit next week to expand ties

The leaders of South Korea and Japan will meet next week for a summit expected to focus on expanding ties both governments said on ThursdayThe announcement comes days after South Korea unveiled a major step toward resolving strained bilateral ties stemming from Tokyos colonial rule of the Korean PeninsulaPresident Yoon Suk Yeol is to visit Japan from March 1617 at the invitation of the Japanese government During this twoday trip Yoon will hold a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida according to the South Korean and Japanese governmentsYoons office said in a statement the summit would be an important milestone in the development of KoreaJapan relations It said South Korea hopes the two countries will overcome an unfortunate past and expand cooperation on security economy and other sectors as a result of the visitJapans Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Tokyos invitation for the South Korean leader was a result of close communication between the two countries since Yoons inauguration in MaySouth Korea is an important neighbour that Japan should cooperate in various issues in the international society Matsuno said Through the upcoming visit we hope the ties between our two countries will develop further based on our relations of friendship and cooperation since the normalization of our diplomatic tiesThe announcement on the summit came three days after South Korea said it would raise local funds to compensate Koreans who performed forced labour during Tokyos 191045 colonial rule The South Korean plan doesnt require Japanese companies to contribute to the reparationsBilateral ties suffered a major setback after South Koreas top court in 2018 ordered two Japanese companies to compensate some of their former Korean employees for forced labour during the colonial rule The companies and the Japanese government refused to comply with the rulings and insisted all compensation issues were settled by a bilateral 1965 treaty that normalised relations between the two countries and was accompanied by hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid and loans from Tokyo to SeoulAlso read North Korea warns the US against shooting down missile testsThe fraught SeoulTokyo ties complicated American efforts to reinforce its threeway security cooperation in the face of rising Chinese influence in the region and North Korean nuclear threats President Joe Biden hailed South Koreas announcement on Monday as a groundbreaking new chapter of cooperation between two of the United States closest alliesSince taking office Yoon has pushed for stronger relations with Japan as a way to boost security cooperation among Seoul Tokyo and Washington as North Korea adopted an escalatory nuclear doctrine and pushed to develop more powerful nuclearcapable missiles targeting South KoreaThe South Korean plan to end the disputes over the 2018 rulings invited fierce opposition from some of the forced labour victims involved in the lawsuits their supporters and liberal opposition politicians who have called it a diplomatic surrender and demanded direct payments and a fresh apology from Japan over the issueOn Tuesday Yoon defended his governments step saying its crucial for Seoul to build futureoriented ties with TokyoIn September Yoon and Kishida held the first summit between the two countries in nearly three years on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly During that summit the two agreed to accelerate efforts to mend their frayed tiesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever