S. Korea-Japan summit unlikely to be held before March

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) -- A summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is unlikely to be held before March, officials said Monday, as the two countries negotiate a solution to the issue of compensation for forced labor victims.

Speculation has been widespread that Yoon could pay his first visit to Japan as president next month for a summit with Kishida.

The visit would be timed to coincide with an agreement between the two countries on how to settle the issue of compensation for Korean victims of wartime forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

"There's no plan in place for President Yoon to visit Japan next month," a key presidential official told Yonhap News Agency.

A different senior official also expressed skepticism about a summit taking place before March, saying, "There's still more work to do in terms of persuading the victims and negotiating the details with Japan."

Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have frayed since South Korea's Supreme Court issued rulings in 2018 that ordered Japan's Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay compensation to the Korean forced labor victims.

Japan maintains that all issues of compensation were settled under a 1965 treaty that normalized bilateral ties after Japan's colonial rule.

The South Korean government has been weighing the option of compensating the victims through the Foundation for Victims of Forced Mobilization by Imperial Japan, which is under the interior ministry, as an alternative to receiving compensation from the Japanese companies. The victims have rejected the proposal.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government is reportedly demanding an extra guarantee that would deprive the victims of the right to make additional claims against the companies in the future.

Foreign ministry officials from both sides were meeting in Seoul on Monday to negotiate the details.

Yoon has expressed his strong commitment to improving relations with Japan, and held two summits with Kishida on the sidelines of multilateral gatherings in New York and Cambodia last year.

hague@yna.co.kr
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