Yoon, Kishida agree to cooperate on North Korea, improve bilateral relations

President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida greet each other ahead of the Korea-Japan summit at a conference building in New York on Wednesday (local time).

SEOUL — South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for the first time in New York on Wednesday, where the two agreed on the need to improve relations by resolving pending issues between the two countries.

The presidential office said in the afternoon, “President Yoon had a brief meeting with Prime Minister Kishida at a conference building near the United Nations General Assembly for 30 minutes from 12:23 p.m.”

It is the first meeting between the leaders of South Korea and Japan since former President Moon Jae-in and then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met in December 2019.

The informal talks without a specific agenda, and reporters were not allowed into the meeting room.

The presidential office said, “The two leaders agreed to cooperate with the international community to keep the universal values shared by each other, such as liberal democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”

“The two leaders shared serious concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program, including the legislation of nuclear weapons and the possibility of a seventh nuclear test, and agreed to work closely with the international community to respond.”

The office added the two agreed on the need to improve bilateral relations by resolving pending issues, and to this end, they decided to increase lower level dialogue.

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