 |
| ▲ First Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin speaks during a press conference in Seoul after an Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group meeting, a gathering of vice-ministerial defense officials and diplomats between South Korea and the United States, in this file photo taken Sept. 15, 2023. (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) S Korea-Japan-vice ministers
(LEAD) S. Korea, Japan to hold 'strategic dialogue' for 1st time in nine years
(ATTN: ADDS photo, minor details)
By Kim Seung-yeon
SEOUL, Oct. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and Japan will hold vice-ministerial talks in Seoul later this week, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, the first such meeting in about nine years.
The "strategic dialogue" will take place Thursday between First Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin and his Japanese counterpart, Masataka Okano, the ministry said.
The last such meeting took place in 2014.
This week's meeting comes as a follow-up to the March summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and the two sides plan to discuss in depth a broad range of topics, including bilateral relations and regional and international issues, the ministry said.
The strategic dialogue channel, established in 2005, had remained stalled since the last meeting in October 2014 due to a chill in bilateral ties.
Bilateral relations between Seoul and Tokyo have warmed significantly following South Korea's decision in March to compensate Korean victims of Japanese wartime forced labor on its own without asking for contributions from Japanese firms.
The thaw in relations was little affected by Japan's release of treated radioactive water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean, as Seoul has maintained the discharge will have little effect on the environment as long as it is done in a scientifically safe way.
(END)
(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved
