Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, second from right, and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, second from left, attend a meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on Sept. 6. (Pool via AP)

SEOUL--Japan and South Korea signed an agreement to work together when evacuating their citizens from third countries during emergencies.

“I was able to open a new chapter in relations between Japan and South Korea during the past two years by gaining a reliable partner in President Yoon Suk-yeol, who has a strong desire to strengthen bilateral relations,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said after talks with his South Korean counterpart here on Sept. 6.

“The two countries must continue on this path in the future,” said Kishida, making his last visit to Seoul as prime minister because he will step down this month by not seeking re-election in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership contest on Sept. 27.

“I will continue to do my utmost to make Japan-South Korea relations more solid and broad-based, whatever position I may be in,” he added.

The mutual cooperation document on emergency evacuation is the first that Tokyo has signed with another country, officials said.

It pledges that Japan and South Korea will share information through consultations of senior government officials roughly once in a year, even in peacetime. 

The two countries will work closely together when the situation in a third country worsens to the point where their citizens need to be evacuated.

Japan-South Korea relations dramatically improved under the administrations of Kishida and Yoon, who was elected president in 2022.

The Sept. 6 summit, which lasted for 100 minutes in two settings, was the 12th in-person meeting between the two leaders.

Kishida and Yoon agreed that Japan and South Korea will continue to strengthen cooperation and exchanges in a sustained manner.

They said the two countries, which next year will mark the 60th anniversary of normalized diplomatic relations, will consider making it easier for their citizens to enter each other’s country.

Kishida and Yoon also discussed responses to military collaboration between North Korea and Russia and agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation as well as their partnership with the United States.

Japan-South Korea relations plummeted to a postwar low after South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered Japanese companies to pay reparations to Korean laborers in Japan during World War II.

Relations improved markedly after Yoon announced in March 2023 that a foundation under the South Korean government would take over the payment of damages to resolve the dispute.

(This article was written by Anri Takahashi and Narumi Ota.)

Related News