South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will visit Japan for two days from March 16 following Seoul’s announcement earlier this week of a plan aimed at resolving a long-festering dispute with Japan over wartime labor, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Thursday.
“With President Yoon’s visit to Japan, we hope that Japan-South Korea relations will advance further, on the basis of the friendly and cooperative relationship that has existed since the normalization of diplomatic relations,” said Matsuno.
Yoon will meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida followed by a dinner, but other details of the visit have yet to be disclosed.
The meeting is expected to help mend bilateral ties, which have been sour for years over the wartime labor dispute.
Kishida and Yoon, who have been eager to improve ties, last met in November on the sidelines of the ASEAN leaders summit in Cambodia. But it will be Yoon’s first visit to Japan since he took office last year.
On Monday, Seoul announced a plan to have a South Korean foundation raise funds via “voluntary” private sector donations, which will be used to compensate wartime laborers under Japan’s 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.