President Lee Jae-myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi held their fourth meeting in about six months, underscoring their push to deepen ties between the historical Asian rivals in the face of geopolitical challenges.
Lee hosted Takaichi in his hometown of Andong, a south- eastern city famous for a centuries-old traditional folk village that is a Unesco World Heritage site.
In January, the two met in Takaichi’s hometown of Nara, an ancient Japanese capital.
The meetings marked the first time sitting leaders of the two countries have visited each other’s hometowns.
The summit’s official agenda includes economic and energy cooperation, the Iran war and development of their bilateral ties, which have no current sticking points.
Experts say the meeting likely will proceed smoothly and the relationship will remain on a positive trajectory for now.
“The two countries put more emphasis on agenda for cooperation than contentious issues,” said Choi Eunmi, a Japan expert at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
Ties between Seoul and Tokyo are so delicate they could suffer unexpected setbacks if they fail to formulate coping measures for explosive issues such as Japan’s colonial-era mobilisation of Koreans as forced labourers and sex slaves, according to experts, who say wrangling over those issues has eased as the two governments try to avoid public discussions.
“Both countries aren’t talking about how to resolve and prevent recurrences of conflicts over those issues and we don’t know when they could occur again,” Choi said. — AP
