World News | South Korea, Japan seek better ties amid North Korea missile tensions

SEOUL, Nov. 13 (AP) The leaders of South Korea and Japan agreed on Sunday to continue efforts to resolve a thorny historical dispute, as they push for greater security cooperation with the United States to better deal with North Korea’s nuclear threat.

South Korean President Yoon Se-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met twice on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Cambodia — with U.S. President Joe Biden and then bilaterally.

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Yoon’s office said in a statement that during the bilateral meeting, Yoon and Kishida assessed that there was active communication between their diplomats on “current issues between the two countries” and agreed to continue negotiations to find an early solution .

The two leaders also agreed to continue communication, it said.

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The statement did not elaborate on what the problem was, but apparently referred to a long-running dispute over a 2018 Seoul court ruling ordering two Japanese companies to compensate South Koreans who were transferred to forced labor during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule. Korean Peninsula.

The ruling brought bilateral ties to a multi-decade low as the companies and the Japanese government argued that all compensation issues had been settled under a 1965 treaty that normalized relations and refused to comply with the verdict. The two countries later downgraded each other’s trade status, with Seoul threatening to drop the intelligence-sharing agreement.

The South Korea-Japan spat complicates U.S. efforts to strengthen a trilateral security alliance with its Asian ally in the face of an increasingly assertive China and advancing North Korea’s nuclear program.

South Korea and Japan have sought a solution to their dispute since the inauguration in May of Yoon Yoon, a conservative who wants to strengthen Seoul’s military alliance with the United States and improve relations with Japan. Some experts say North Korea’s provocative missile tests in recent months have also helped bring Seoul and Tokyo closer because they are both within striking distance of North Korean missiles, and see a need for greater security cooperation with the United States.

At a bilateral summit on Sunday, Yoon and Kishida again condemned North Korea’s missile test, which they called a “serious provocation” that undermined regional and international peace. During their meeting with Biden, the three leaders said in a joint statement that they would work together to strengthen deterrence and ensure that all relevant sanctions against North Korea are fully enforced. Biden also reiterated that the U.S. commitment to defending Japan and South Korea is “firm” and backed by a full range of capabilities, including nuclear.

In September, Yin and Kishida held their first talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly and agreed to speed up efforts to repair relations between the two countries. That meeting was the first summit between the two countries since December 2019. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)