Japan, S. Korea Leaders Affirm Need Of Mutual Visits

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) TOKYO, Sept 30 (KUNA) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday agreed on the significance of reciprocal visits at the highest level and to stably develop bilateral ties, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported from Busan.
At their summit in the South Korean southern port city, Ishiba and Lee also reaffirmed the continued alignment between the two countries as well as trilaterally with the US toward North Korea's complete denuclearization, the report said.
Touching on the practice of regular exchanges of visits by leaders of the two countries, Ishiba told reporters after the meeting, "They are extremely significant. It is possible to increase their frequency to live up to the name 'shuttle (diplomacy).'"
Lee also underscored the importance of the practice at the outset of the talks, saying that it needs to "firmly take root."
Reciprocal visits by the two countries' leaders, based on an agreement dating back to 2004, had stalled from 2011 amid disputes stemming from Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
The visits resumed in 2023 under the predecessors of Ishiba and Lee following progress in a thorny row regarding compensation demands from South Koreans over wartime labor.
The two leaders also released a document that pledges to strengthen bilateral cooperation in dealing with common social issues such as a declining birthrate, the revitalization of regional areas and disaster prevention through a consultation framework that they agreed to in August.
Lee asked for Japan's cooperation in resolving North Korea's nuclear issue and said he hopes to ease inter-Korean tensions and build trust with Pyongyang, according to the South Korean Presidential Office. (end)
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