Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung-se, agreed Wednesday to cooperate closely toward the success of a summit Seoul plans to hold with Tokyo and Beijing in late October or early November.
Speaking to reporters after talks with Yun at the United Nations headquarters, Kishida said he conveyed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wish to hold what will be his first official meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye on the sidelines of the envisaged trilateral summit.
Abe and Park have yet to hold a formal meeting since they took office in 2012 and 2013, respectively, due to differing views on territory and wartime history. The upcoming three-way summit, which also involves Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, will be the first such meeting since May 2012.