On the afternoon of the 21st (local time), while visiting New York to attend the UN General Assembly, President Yun Seok-yeol held his first bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The bilateral meeting took place for about 30 minutes at a conference hall in a building in Midtown Manhattan, New York.
A face-to-face meeting was held in a way that President Yun visited at the ‘Friends of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)’ event attended by Prime Minister Kishida.
The presidential office announced that the Korea-Japan summit had begun at 12:25 p.m. on the same day.
Then, at 12:56, President Yun came down to the first floor and exited the building, and five minutes later, Prime Minister Kishida came down.
The official face-to-face meeting between the leaders of Korea and Japan is the first in more than two years and nine months since then-President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held bilateral talks on the occasion of the Korea-China-Japan summit held in Chengdu, China in December 2019.
The two parties appear to have discussed ways to normalize Korea-Japan relations at this meeting.
It is also noteworthy that the issue of past history was mentioned.
The two sides have not made a separate announcement about the outcome of the talks so far.
The meeting was held in a blitz after the two sides fought for flags.
Until this morning, the presidential office had been silent about whether the meeting would take place, saying, “I will tell you when the situation develops.”
/yunhap news