Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, meets with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in New York on Sept. 21. (Provided by Cabinet Public Affairs Office)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol agreed that their respective nations need to resolve bilateral issues and improve ties during a brief meeting on Sept. 21.

The two leaders were visiting New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly session and met face to face for the first time since June 28, when they both attended the NATO summit in Spain.

Kishida and Yoon agreed in the 30-minute meeting to develop Japan-South Korea relations into a future-oriented one based on the friendship and cooperation established since the normalization of ties in 1965.

They also agreed to instruct diplomats of the two nations to accelerate discussions and to also continue to maintain an open channel of communications between the two leaders.

Yoon expressed support for Japan’s position regarding North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals decades ago, according to Foreign Ministry officials.

Officials of the South Korean presidential office said North Korea was discussed and the two leaders expressed “grave concerns” about Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons development program. They also confirmed they would cooperate closely with the international community in dealing with the issue.

Coordination for the latest summit hit a roadblock when South Korea announced on Sept. 15 that an agreement had been reached to hold a meeting in New York. Japanese officials initially denied that any such agreement had been reached.

(This article was written by Keishi Nishimura in New York and Takuya Suzuki in Seoul.)

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