SEOUL– South Korea and Japan held working-level diplomatic consultations Tuesday on their protracted row over wartime forced labor and other bilateral issues, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.

Lee Sang-ryol, the ministry’s director general for Asia and Pacific affairs, held consultations with his Japanese counterpart, Takehiro Funakoshi, at the Seoul foreign ministry in Seoul. The meeting lasted for about two hours.
According to officials, discussions focused on the issue of resolving compensation for the forced labor of Koreans during World War II. The two previously met in Tokyo on Aug. 26.

The ministry said the meeting was held under “a consensus to accelerate talks between diplomatic officials of South Korea and Japan.” The two also agreed to continue close communications in the future.

The meeting followed a summit between South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York last month.

It has raised hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to warm Seoul-Tokyo relations frayed due to disputes over wartime forced labor and other issues related to Japan’s 1910-45 brutal colonial rule of Korea.

Lim Soo-suk, the ministry’s spokesperson, said in a press briefing that South Korea has not set a specific time frame to negotiate a deal with Japan on the issue.

He said the ministry will make further efforts to accelerate consultations and communication between the sides.

Funakoshi, who doubles as Japan’s envoy for North Korean denuclearization talks, also plans to meet with Kim Gunn, his South Korean counterpart, on Wednesday in Seoul.

Source: Yonhap News Agency