Yoon asks Japanese lawmakers to help increase people-to-people exchanges

SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk-yeol met with a group of Japanese lawmakers on Friday and asked them to help increase people-to-people exchanges that have resumed in earnest following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lawmakers were in Seoul to attend a joint general meeting with their South Korean counterparts as members of the Japan-Korea Parliamentarians' Union.

"President Yoon stressed that increased people-to-people exchanges across various areas have important significance in firmly building the foundation for the development of South Korea-Japan relations, and asked for the Japanese parliament's active cooperation and interest in expanding people-to-people exchanges between the two countries that are resuming in earnest following the COVID-19 era," the presidential office said in a press release.

Fukushiro Nukaga, a lawmaker of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party and chairman of the union, expressed his condolences over the deadly crowd crush that killed more than 150 people in Seoul last weekend.

He also outlined the results of Thursday's joint general meeting and promised the union's continued efforts to ensure the recent "positive atmosphere" in bilateral relations translates to an improvement in the two countries' ties.

hague@yna.co.kr
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