S. Korea in talks with Japan over PM Kishida's visit
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shake hands during a summit in Seoul, May 26. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon
South Korea is in talks with Japan over a trip to Seoul by outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the presidential office said Sunday.
The move could set the stage for summit talks between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Kishida, and represents a step forward compared with just days earlier, when South Korea said that no decision had been made yet after Japan's Kyodo News reported that Kishida was considering holding summit talks with Yoon in South Korea in early September before stepping down.
"We are in discussions with Japan over Prime Minister Kishida's visit to South Korea and will make public the decision once it is made," a presidential official told Yonhap News Agency by phone.
Bilateral relations between Seoul and Tokyo have significantly warmed since South Korea decided in March last year to resolve the issue of compensating Korean forced labor victims during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula without asking for contributions from Japanese companies.
Yoon and Kishida have prioritized bolstering trilateral security cooperation between the Asian neighbors and their shared ally, the United States, amid growing security threats posed by North Korea. (Yonhap)