Korea-Japan Director-General Meeting 'Discussion on Current Issues'... Differences on Historical Issues Reconfirmed

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] On the 2nd, South Korea and Japan held a director-level consultation between their diplomatic authorities in Seoul to discuss bilateral issues.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the day, Lee Sang-ryeol, Director General of the Asia-Pacific Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met with Takehiro Funakoshi, Director General of the Asia and Oceania Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Sejong-ro, Seoul.

Both sides reaffirmed the recognition of the need for a prompt improvement in Korea-Japan relations and exchanged opinions on various issues between Korea and Japan, including mutual interests such as people-to-people exchanges.

They are also discussing the first visit to Japan by Foreign Minister Park Jin since his inauguration, making it highly likely that related plans will be discussed.

The Gimpo-Haneda air route, which had been suspended due to COVID-19, is scheduled to resume operations around the 15th of next month, making the restoration of people-to-people exchanges more visible.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that they agreed to continue communication between diplomatic authorities with a greater sense of urgency to restore and improve Korea-Japan relations going forward.

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also stated that both sides frankly exchanged opinions on overall Korea-Japan relations and agreed to continue communication between diplomatic authorities to restore bilateral relations to a healthy state.

However, it is uncertain whether concrete consensus will be reached on historical issues.

During the director-level consultation on the day, the two sides clashed over the Dokdo issue.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director General Funakoshi protested to Director General Lee on the 28th of last month regarding South Korea conducting marine surveys near Dokdo.

In response, Director General Lee emphasized that Dokdo is clearly our inherent territory historically, geographically, and under international law, and stated that any objections from Japan regarding legitimate activities conducted in accordance with international law such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and domestic laws cannot be accepted, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.

This survey is a regular survey conducted by the National Oceanographic Research Institute and is scheduled to continue until the 18th of this month.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.