Seoul: Two rival party lawmakers of South Korea met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday and delivered their thoughts on the results of a summit held a day earlier between Kishida and President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The closed-door session comes on the second day of Kishida’s two-day working visit to South Korea, a highly symbolic trip that marks a start for the restoration of bilateral relations long frayed over issues rooted in Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, Yonhap news agency reported.
Representative Chung Jin-suk from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and Representative Yun Ho-jung from the main Opposition Democratic Party (DP), both of whom are leaders of the Korea-Japan Parliamentarians’ Union, attended the Monday meeting with Kishida at a hotel in Seoul.
At the scene, dozens of police officers were dispatched near the hotel’s front gates, while a mob of reporters and cameras surrounded the lobby inside, waiting for the arrival of Prime Minister Kishida and the Korean delegates.
During the meeting, which lasted around 50 minutes, the two lawmakers delivered their thoughts on the results of Sunday’s summit, where the two leaders pledged to work closely together in all areas of cooperation.
The summit also produced an agreement to allow South Korean experts to visit the Fukushima nuclear power plant for safety checks ahead of the planned release of contaminated water from it.
During a joint press conference, Kishida also expressed regret over the issue of Japan’s wartime forced labour, which had been the biggest thorn in relations between the two countries, saying his “heart aches” for those who suffered under harsh conditions at the time.
It was the first time Kishida has made such a remark.
“It seems like a warm breeze is blowing in Korea-Japan relations just one year after the Yoon Suk Yeol administration was launched. The two leaders’ courage and determination was the power behind the rapid normalisation of the Korea-Japan relations,” Chung told reporters after the meeting ended.
“We told the Prime Minister that we think highly of Tokyo’s efforts and was impressed by his warm message in regards to the forced labour victims,” he said.
Chung added that he also asked Kishida for Japan’s support for South Korea’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan, and Kishida said in response that the country is looking at the issue seriously, according to Chung.
Yun of the main opposition DP, however, said he told Kishida there is still a long road ahead in resolving historical issues between the two countries and urged Tokyo to step up efforts.
On the dispatch of a joint inspection team to look into the Fukushima water release, Yun said: “While I expressed gratitude, I requested Tokyo to turn the joint inspection into an opportunity for a joint verification by experts from the two countries. I also requested Japan to consider other alternatives apart from releasing the wastewater into the ocean.”
Yun also added that he requested Tokyo to “revise” its key defence documents, which endorsed Japan’s sovereignty claim to the South’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.
“I pointed out it is inconsistent for Japan to include a contentious matter with Korea in their defence documents, while it is discussing security cooperation with the US and Korea,” he said.
“The move resembles the likes of China and Russia.”
–IANS
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