(LEAD) Yoon, Kishida hold summit in New York

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By Lee Haye-ah

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a one-on-one meeting in New York on Wednesday, the presidential office said, marking the first summit between the two countries in nearly three years.

The meeting took place as Yoon and Kishida were in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly.

It marked the first summit between the two nations since December 2019, raising hope of improving relations badly frayed over wartime forced labor and other issues related to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Yoon's office had been careful about providing details about the summit after Japan reportedly balked at South Korea's announcement of the meeting before both sides had fully agreed to it.

The two sides have been locked in a protracted row over the issue of compensation for Korean forced labor victims.

South Korea's top court has ruled that Japanese firms pay compensation to the victims, while Japan has insisted all issues of compensation were settled under a 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.

The meeting is one of the highlights of Yoon's three-nation swing that began in Britain on Sunday and brought him to New York for the U.N. General Assembly on Monday.

Yoon will visit Toronto and Ottawa on the final legs of his seven-day trip on Thursday and Friday.

hague@yna.co.kr
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