Japanese PM Kishida to visit S. Korea this week for last summit with Yoon

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit South Korea later this week for talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol, the presidential office said Tuesday, as Kishida is preparing to leave office with a legacy of improving long-frayed relations with Seoul. After arriving Friday for a two-day visit, Kishida will hold talks with Yoon, where the two leaders will look back on the achievement of cooperation between the two countries and discuss ways to further move bilateral, regional and international cooperation forward, Yoon's office said. It will be Kishida's 12th summit with Yoon in just about two years. It will also be their last summit as Kishida has announced a decision to give up on reelection as prime minister and leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after three years on the job. Yoon and Kishida have developed close bonds after Yoon decided last year to resolve the long-running row over Japan's wartime mobilization of Koreans for forced labor by compensating victims without asking Japanese firms for contributions. The two leaders have since restored the long-suspended "shuttle diplomacy" of visiting each other whenever necessary and held a series of meetings on the sidelines of international conferences. The restored ties have also significantly bolstered trilateral security cooperation with the United States. During a press conference last week, Yoon said he aims to maintain cooperation with Japan regardless of who becomes the new prime minister in Japan's upcoming election Source: Yonhap News Agency