Lee asks Tokyo envoy for meeting with PM Kishida

SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Yonhap) ― Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung asked Tokyo's top envoy to Seoul on Monday to help arrange a meeting between him and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, a campaign official said.

The Democratic Party of Korea nominee expressed the wish during a meeting with Ambassador Koichi Aiboshi at the party's headquarters, as Kim Joon-hyung, a foreign policy adviser for Lee's campaign, told reporters after attending the meeting. The ambassador promised to convey Lee's request, he said.

"Candidate Lee asked for a candid meeting with Prime Minister Kishida without any conditions, as soon as possible," Kim said.

When asked if he meant after he wins the March 9 presidential election, Kim said the candidate did not specify, but that he understood his remarks as such.

Lee also called for future-oriented cooperation between the two countries, to which the ambassador agreed.

"Candidate Lee said that if South Korea-Japan relations are in a difficult state, it is a loss to both sides," Kim said. "He also said that the current administration is working to improve South Korea-Japan relations until the end, even though there isn't much left in its term."

The meeting came as relations between the two countries have deteriorated to their worst level in years due to disputes over their shared history and trade.

Regarding the issue of compensation for South Korean victims of forced labor under Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, the two agreed to discuss the details at a later date, Kim said.

This was the first formal meeting between Lee and Aiboshi. (Yonhap)