President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pose before summit meeting in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China on Tuesday. Yonhap
SEOUL — President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister agreed to resolve the forced labor and trade issues through dialogue at a bilateral summit held in China, Seoul’s presidential office said Tuesday.
At the meeting — held on the sidelines of South Korea-China-Japan trilateral summit held in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan province — Moon and Abe stressed the importance of dialogue, but failed to narrow differences over outstanding issues.
“(Korea and Japan) confirmed the differences in their positions over the forced labor issue, but agreed on the need to resolve it through dialogue,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Ko Min-jung said.
Ko also quoted Moon as saying that Japan’s trade-related measures against Korea must be reverted to the situation before July 1. In July, Japan removed Korea from the whitelist of trade partners, and imposed tougher regulations on importing key semiconductor-related materials to Korea.