By TAKESHI KAMIYA/ Staff Writer
May 11, 2020 at 17:17 JST
A 5-year-old South Korean girl with acute leukemia departs Delhi in India, aboard a special Japan Airlines Corp. flight to Tokyo's Haneda Airport on May 4. (Provided by Japan Airlines Co.)
Japan's assistance in bringing a young South Korean girl who has leukemia home from India for treatment has warmed frosty relations between the two countries.
The 5-year-old, who had been living in India, arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport early on May 5, aboard a special Japan Airlines Co. (JAL) flight and returned to South Korea the same day.
She was diagnosed with acute leukemia on May 2, according to sources associated with South Korea's Foreign Ministry.
All flights from India to South Korea have been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting the South Korean Embassy in New Delhi to appeal to other countries for help to get the girl home.
The Japanese Embassy in the Indian capital accepted the request because the JAL flight was the earliest available to bring her home.
South Korean media widely reported the story.
“It is another example of the cooperation between South Korea and Japan,” said a South Korean Foreign Ministry official.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, “South Korea showed deep gratitude” for Japan's assistance to the girl.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry revealed that South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha sent a letter of appreciation to her Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi.
Japan and South Korea have recently been cooperating to allow their nationals to take the other nation's special flights in Africa, South America and elsewhere amid the novel coronavirus pandemic that has grounded flights worldwide.
The countries have cooperated on more than 20 flights to date.
Some in South Korea pointed out that the high attention the countries' cooperation is receiving indicates how badly the relationship between the two neighbors has deteriorated.
Relations between Japan and South Korea plummeted last year over a 2018 court ruling in Seoul related to wartime laborers, followed by a trade dispute after Tokyo imposed export control measures on materials used to manufacture electronic devices.
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