Two major business organizations of South Korea and Japan will hold their top-level conference in the southeastern port city of Busan, the Korean business lobby said Thursday, restoring the annual gathering after a six-year hiatus amid a thaw in bilateral relations.

The chairs' meeting, to be co-hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), will take place on June 9, the KCCI said in a release.

The decision came as the business organizations agreed to bolster future-oriented economic cooperation at the private level, the KCCI said.

"Joint responses to global supply chains, private exchanges in areas like youth employment, and new entrepreneurship will be among the key agenda items," the KCCI said.

The organizations will also discuss ways to bolster cooperation and exchanges between the regional offices of the chambers. The KCCI has 73 regional headquarters and the JCCI has 515 regional offices across each country.

The chairs' conference had taken place annually since the inaugural session in 2001, but it was not held after 2017 amid the deterioration in bilateral relations over disputes stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Relations rapidly thawed after South Korea announced in March it will compensate Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor on its own and without involving the accused Japanese companies, a decision hailed by Tokyo that led to a summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Source: Yonhap News Agency