Yoon's office says talks on arranging Korea-Japan summit have not begun

These photos show Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, left, talking with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida over the phone at the presidential office in Seoul and Kishida answering reporters' questions at his residence in Tokyo right after phone talks with Yoon, Oct. 6. Yonhap

Korea and Japan have not started talks on arranging a summit between President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the presidential office said Thursday.

Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported earlier that Japan is looking into arranging a formal bilateral summit on the sidelines of an international gathering planned for mid-November.

The paper said the Japanese government saw the need to improve bilateral relations in light of North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threats even as the two countries remain locked in a dispute over the issue of compensation for Korean wartime forced labor.

"Regarding a Korea-Japan summit, we have not yet begun discussions," a presidential official told reporters. (Yonhap)