Yoon to meet with U.S., Japanese leaders at U.N.

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk-yeol will hold one-on-one summits with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, his office said Thursday.

The meeting with Kishida, in particular, will mark the first summit between the two countries in nearly three years since the last meeting in December 2019 and raises hope for improving relations frayed badly over wartime forced labor and other issues related to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

Yoon is set to attend the U.N. gathering on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a three-nation trip that will also take him to London for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and Canada for a summit with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo said at a press briefing that the summits with Biden and Kishida have been agreed upon, though the exact times have yet to be fixed.

The Yoon-Kishida meeting will be watched closely, as the two countries have been locked in a protracted row over disputes stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, including the issue of compensation for Korean forced labor victims.

The two leaders will be holding their first bilateral meeting since Yoon took office in May.

The agenda for the talks has not been predetermined, but both sides "gladly agreed" to the meeting, a presidential official said.

With Biden, Yoon is expected to discuss the implementation of agreements reached during their first summit in Seoul in May, the official said.

hague@yna.co.kr
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