THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
July 19, 2022 at 18:31 JST
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, center, and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, left, after their meeting on July 19 (Koichi Ueda)
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin paid a courtesy call July 19 on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the first such meeting in four years between a Japanese leader and a top diplomat of the neighboring country.
Park visited the prime minister’s office to pay respects to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who was shot to death on July 8, according to government officials.
The last time a Japanese prime minister met with a South Korean foreign minister was in July 2018, when Abe met Kang Kyung-wha.
Park’s visit followed talks with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, the previous day.
It was the first meeting of the two foreign ministers since Yoon Suk-yeol assumed the presidency of South Korea in May.
During the talks, they reaffirmed their intention to work to resolve the prickly issue of compensation demands from wartime Korean laborers who worked for Japanese companies. The issue badly soured bilateral relations.
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