First Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-ji (R) shakes hands with his Japanese counterpart, Masataka Okano, ahead of the vice-ministerial strategic dialogue at the foreign ministry in Seoul on Oct. 5, 2023. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea and Japan held vice-ministerial talks in Seoul on Thursday, the first such talks in nine years amid warming bilateral relations, as Japan was set to begin a second round of radioactive water discharge into the ocean.
First Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin met his Japanese counterpart, Masataka Okano, for “strategic dialogue” discussions expected to address various agenda items from bilateral relations to regional and global issues, according to South Korea’s foreign ministry.
The meeting came amid a thaw in bilateral relations after South Korea decided in March to compensate Korean victims of Japanese wartime forced labor on its own without asking for contributions from Japanese companies.
The decision led to President Yoon Suk Yeol traveling to Tokyo later that month for summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, becoming the first South Korean president to make a bilateral visit to Japan in 12 years.
Thursday’s meeting also came on the day that Japan was set to discharge its second batch of treated radioactive water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean through Oct. 23, following its first release from Aug. 24 to Sept. 11.
Japan’s release of the radioactive water has had little impact on the warming of relations, as Seoul has maintained the discharge will have little effect on the environment as long as it is done in a scientifically safe manner.
Reviving high-level diplomatic dialogue channels, including restoring the long-suspended “shuttle diplomacy” of regular leader visits, was part of the agreement reached at the March summit. Since then, the two leaders have held five additional summit meetings.
The strategic dialogue, established in 2005, had not taken place since the last meeting in October 2014 due to a chill in bilateral ties.
Following the meeting, Okano was expected to pay a courtesy call on Foreign Minister Park Jin.
(Yonhap)
