In a breakthrough highlighting fast-improving ties after years of rancor, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol agreed Thursday in Tokyo to resume “shuttle diplomacy,” which saw the two countries’ leaders regularly visiting each other until 2011, opening a “new chapter” in ties.
The visit to Japan by Yoon is the first by a South Korean president for a bilateral summit since Lee Myung-bak traveled to Kyoto nearly 12 years ago.
The two leaders used the summit — held just 10 days after South Korea unveiled a proposal to settle a festering dispute over wartime labor that had roiled ties — to showcase the breakthrough and unveil an expansion of cooperation in a number of areas, including key political, economic and cultural exchanges and meetings.