Japan, S. Korea Arranging Kishida-Yoon Meeting

Seoul, Sept. 15 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese and South Korean governments are working to hold a bilateral summit on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, a Seoul official said Thursday.

If realized, it will be the first official summit between the two East Asian nations since the one held in December 2019 by then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and then South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Chengdu, China. Abe was shot to death in July.

Current Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol briefly exchanged words during a NATO summit in Spain this June, but have yet to hold a formal meeting.

The senior official at the presidential office said Yoon is considering meeting separately with Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden somewhere between Wednesday and the following day local time.

Other South Korean government officials said Tokyo and Seoul have been discussing ways to resolve the pending issue of wartime labor and that the two sides willingly agreed to schedule a Kishida-Yoon meeting in New York. But they declined to clarify whether the proposed summit will be a formal meeting or not.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]