Japan, S. Korea foreign ministers to meet next week in Madrid

Japan and South Korea are arranging for their foreign ministers to meet next week in Madrid to lay the groundwork for an upcoming summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Moon Jae In, government sources said Thursday.

Toshimitsu Motegi and Kang Kyung Wha will both be in the Spanish capital to attend a ministerial conference among Asian and European countries. The two may meet on Monday, the sources said, though a date has yet to be finalized.

The meeting would come as ties between the neighboring countries have sunk to the lowest point in years over a dispute over wartime labor compensation and trade controls.

Abe and Moon are slated to hold their first formal talks in more than a year on the sidelines of a trilateral summit with China later this month, with the focus on whether they can ease tensions that are already taking an economic toll and have threatened to undermine security cooperation in the face of missile threats from North Korea.

Ahead of that summit in Chengdu, Motegi and Kang are expected to sound out a compromise that is mutually acceptable, though significant differences in each side's positions remain.

Relations soured following rulings last year by South Korea's top court ordering Japanese companies to compensate people who said they were subject to forced labor during the 1910-1945 period that Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula.

While Japan argues the issue of compensation was settled "finally and completely" by a 1965 bilateral agreement, the court said personal claims are still valid. South Korea's government has refused to step in because of the separation of powers.

In July, Japan announced it is tightening trade controls on South Korea by placing stricter regulations on exporting some materials needed to produce semiconductors and display panels, and removing the country from a "white list" of trusted trade partners.

Seoul saw the move as retaliation for the court rulings, and struck back by announcing it is terminating a military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo that allows the countries to directly share sensitive information without going through mutual ally the United States.

The pact, called the General Security of Military Information Agreement, was saved with just hours left on the clock when South Korea said it was suspending its earlier decision after agreeing with Japan to hold discussions aimed at lifting the tightened trade controls.

"The start of the director general-level trade talks is a sign that relations could improve," said one government official, who asked to remain unnamed. "We want the meeting (between Motegi and Kang) to happen."

The two last met in late November on the sidelines of a Group of 20 gathering in Nagoya, central Japan.

Source: Mainichi