South Korea is working toward a resolution of the long-pending wartime labor compensation issue, which has soured bilateral relations, a senior official with Japan's Foreign Ministry said ahead of an impending court ruling in Seoul over the envisioned liquidation of Japanese corporate assets.
The official told reporters Friday, that he could see "efforts were being made by Yoon Suk-yeol's administration" following a meeting in Tokyo between Takehiro Funakoshi, director-general of the ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and his South Korean counterpart, Lee Sang-ryeol. He did not elaborate.
The meeting came amid media reports that the South Korean Supreme Court may soon finalize — possibly within this month — a court order to liquidate assets in South Korea seized from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., one of two Japanese firms sued over alleged forced labor during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.