Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will hold a bilateral meeting in Cambodia on Sunday within the framework of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit taking place in Nom Pen these days, according to South Korean and Japanese authorities.
A spokesman for the South Korean presidency quoted by the Yonhap news agency explained that the agreement was reached on Saturday during the participation of both leaders in the summit of the multinational organization.
Both sides agreed on the need to hold a meeting in view of the importance of security cooperation due to the «growing provocations» by North Korea and after the «boost» of trilateral cooperation South Korea-Japan-United States, according to Yonhap.
Yoon will meet with Kishida and then meet with U.S. President Joe Biden and Kishida himself in a trilateral appointment. Kishida and Yoon have met on only two occasions so far, most recently a brief encounter in September in New York to coincide with the UN General Assembly.
Bilateral relations are still burdened by Japan’s actions during its colonial rule over Korea between 1910 and 1945, during which the Japanese Imperial Army committed a spectrum of atrocities, including forced labor and sexual slavery.
