Japan, South Korea to hold talks in Cambodia to improve ties

Phnom Penh, The Gulf Observer: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will hold talks on Sunday in Cambodia, the Japanese government said, as both countries have shown willingness to improve bilateral ties after they worsened significantly over wartime labor issues.

The two leaders will meet on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations-related summits running through Sunday in Phnom Penh.

The talks, the first formal meeting between leaders of the two countries in about three years, will be held as Japan and South Korea have also agreed on the need to work closely on North Korea, which has test-fired missiles at an unprecedented pace this year.

According to a senior South Korean presidential official, the talks are likely to last around 30 minutes.

The inauguration in May of conservative Yoon, who has pledged to take a future-oriented approach toward Japan, has created a better environment for the two countries to seek more opportunities for collaboration. Kishida and Yoon’s previous in-person talks in New York in late September on the fringes of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual session were completely closed to the media and described as “informal” by Tokyo and Seoul, suggesting that bilateral ties remain delicate.