The foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea remained apart on Saturday over Tokyo's selection of a former gold and silver mine as a UNESCO World Heritage candidate despite Seoul's objection due to what it says was the mine's use of forced wartime Korean laborers.
Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, during the 40-minute talks in Hawaii with his South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, repeated his view that Seoul's objection to the listing of the mine on Sado Island in the Sea of Japan is unacceptable, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
The two ministers were in Hawaii for a three-way meeting also involving U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken the same day to discuss North Korea's missile and nuclear threat in the wake of its repeated testing of ballistic missiles this year.