(2nd LD) S. Korea to resume finance ministers' meeting with Japan

(ATTN: UPDATES headline, lead, throughout with meeting results)
By Kang Yoon-seung

INCHEON, May 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and Japan agreed to resume their long-stalled finance ministers' meeting "at an appropriate time this year" as the two countries gear up to normalize economic ties after several years of trade tensions.

Officials from Japan will visit South Korea next month to work out details of the meeting, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

The agreement was reached during a meeting between South Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho and his Japanese counterpart, Shunichi Suzuki, on the sidelines of the 56th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Incheon, 36 kilometers west of Seoul.

"Japan and South Korea share common values, such as freedom and human rights," Choo said ahead of the meeting. "(As the two countries) consider the free trade and market system to be the key of their economic management, there are many areas in which the two governments and the private sectors can join forces."

The finance minister said it is significant that South Korea and Japan have resumed shuttle diplomacy, or regular visits to each other's countries by their leaders. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was the first South Korean president in 12 years to make a bilateral visit to Japan in March.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will make a two-day visit to South Korea next week, according to Japanese media reports.

Choo added South Korea and Japan should bolster partnerships in areas that can create shared interests, such as industries including chips and batteries, along with emerging areas, including space and biotechnology.

The two countries should also expand ties to address issues such as low births and climate change, he added.

Suzuki echoed the view, noting he wishes to expand bilateral financial ties and contribute to the development of the two countries' relationships.

"South Korea and Japan are important neighbors that need to cooperate to address various tasks of the global economy, as well as the regional and international society," Suzuki said ahead of the meeting.

Suzuki also pointed out it is Tokyo's stance that North Korea's development of nuclear weapons, as well as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, cannot be tolerated, noting the two countries should also cooperate in such areas.

Seoul and Tokyo also agreed to make joint efforts to address international and regional issues, and vowed to expand cooperation in global platforms, such as the Group of 20 and the ASEAN+3.

South Korea and Japan recently have been making efforts to revitalize their bilateral exchanges, after the two countries agreed to reinstate each other to their respective "white list" of trusted trading partners.

In 2019, South Korea took Japan off its white list following Tokyo's removal of Seoul from its own list in apparent retaliation against the South Korean Supreme Court rulings the previous year that ordered two Japanese companies to pay compensation to Korean forced labor victims during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

In yet another sign of a slow thaw in bilateral ties, Japan invited South Korea to take part in the upcoming G-7 ministerial meeting that will kick off in Tokyo on May 11.

It marked South Korea's first invitation to the G-7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' Meeting since 2008.

colin@yna.co.kr
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