World News | Kishida plans to visit South Korea’s Yoon ahead of G-7

TOKYO, May 2 (AP) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday he is arranging a trip to South Korea for talks with President Yoon Seok-yeol in return for his March visit to Tokyo, with the aim of further strengthening the two nations ahead of the upcoming GROUP. country relations. seven peaks.

Tokyo and Seoul have been trying to mend relations strained by a wartime historical dispute as they deepen trilateral security cooperation with Washington in response to growing regional threats from North Korea and China.

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Kishida told reporters in Ghana on Tuesday as part of his multi-country visit to Africa and Singapore that he hopes to visit on May 7-8 and exchange views with Yoon on ways to speed up the strengthening of bilateral ties and discuss regional and global problem problem.

“If I visit South Korea before the G7 summit, I hope it will be a good opportunity to advance our shuttle diplomacy” and exchange views on accelerating Japan-South Korea relations. relations and completely change the global situation,” said Kishida, who is chairing the May 19-21 summit in Hiroshima.

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Kishida will be the first Japanese leader to visit South Korea since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the Pyeongchang Olympics in February 2018. The two leaders are expected to focus on their discussions of cooperation and responses to North Korea’s nuclear and missile developments.

Japan and South Korea want to ensure their relationship is on track for a sharp recovery ahead of the G-7, where Yoon was invited as one of eight outreach countries. The two leaders are also expected to hold three-way talks with U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines.

Washington has been stepping up cooperation with key Asian allies.

Yoon was in Washington last week, winning a stronger U.S. commitment to expanding nuclear deterrence, including improved information sharing and nuclear submarine visits to South Korea.

With Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House on Monday, Biden reiterated the U.S. commitment to the country’s security and pointed to the “deep friendship” between the two countries.

Relations between Japan and South Korea have improved rapidly since March, when Yoon’s government announced plans to use South Korean funds to compensate forced laborers without Japanese contributions.

The plan aims to end controversy over a 2018 South Korean court ruling ordering Japanese companies to compensate South Korean workers for abuse and forced labor suffered during World War II, when the peninsula was a Japanese colony.

Tokyo and Seoul have largely settled their trade dispute since Yoon visited Japan in March. The two sides also held their first meeting of finance ministers in seven years, seeking to strengthen cooperation on resilient supply chains amid growing Chinese influence. (Associated Press)

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