South Korea and Japan held working-level diplomatic consultations on the issue of compensating Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor.

At the Japanese foreign ministry in Tokyo on Monday morning, Seo Min-jung, the director general for Asia and Pacific affairs at South Korea's Foreign Ministry, met with her Japanese counterpart, Takehiro Funakoshi, for the discussions.

It marked their first face-to-face meeting after Seoul formally floated the idea of using a public foundation based in South Korea to pay the compensation for Korean victims who won lawsuits against two Japanese firms – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel.

Seoul's foreign ministry explained that Seo conveyed the local sentiment surrounding the plan, which victims and supporting civic groups have strongly opposed, calling for an apology by Japan and direct involvement by the accused companies.

All eyes are on whether Japan will take a more proactive approach as it previously maintained that all reparation issues related to Japan's colonial rule of Korea were settled under a 1965 treaty.

Source: KBS World Radio