Tokyo, 10 March, /AJMEDIA
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday congratulated Yoon Suk Yeol on winning South Korea’s presidential election, expressing hope to improve a bilateral relationship that has been strained over wartime issues.
“I intend to closely work with the new president to improve Japan-South Korea ties,” Kishida told reporters, underscoring that a healthy relationship between the neighboring countries is crucial for global peace and stability.
Noting the major shift in global relations amid the Ukraine crisis, Kishida also said trilateral cooperation between Japan, the United States and South Korea is important.
Regarding the issues of requisitioned Korean workers and “comfort women,” a euphemism for women procured for Japan’s wartime military brothels, Kishida said, “It is important to closely communicate with the new president and his government to regain a healthy relationship based on Japan’s consistent stance (on the matters).”
Bilateral ties have sunk to the lowest level in decades since Seoul effectively nullified a 2015 agreement to “finally and irreversibly” resolve the comfort women issue and South Korea’s top court in 2018 ordered two Japanese companies to pay compensation to former requisitioned workers, a ruling Tokyo dismissed as a violation of international law.
