South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said Tuesday he conveyed to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in their meeting Seoul's intent to respect a 2015 bilateral agreement to settle the issue of Koreans forced to work as "comfort women" in Japan's wartime military brothels.
Park's remark following his courtesy call on Kishida earlier in the day came after the accord to "finally and irreversibly" settle the long-standing issue had been effectively scrapped under South Korea's previous administration despite Tokyo urging Seoul to follow through on the deal.
Park told reporters in Tokyo he expressed his expectation for the Japanese government's sincere response to South Korean efforts to settle the wartime compensation issue during the closed 20-minute meeting with Kishida.
According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Kishida asked for Seoul's efforts in resolving thorny issues between the two countries.
Park also said he passed on South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's message that he hopes the improvement of bilateral ties will speed up with the foreign minister's visit.
Kishida revealed to reporters that Park relayed to him Yoon's condolences over the death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who was shot in western Japan, and Kishida asked Park to "convey my gratitude to President Yoon in return."
South Korean media reported that Park told Kishida he hopes Kishida and Yoon will meet at a convenient time to build new South Korea-Japan relations.
Park made a similar remark regarding the landmark comfort women deal during a separate meeting Tuesday morning with Fukushiro Nukaga, a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who heads the cross-party group for promoting exchanges between the two countries.
Nukaga told reporters the two agreed on the need to also resolve the disputed issue of wartime labor compensation before Japanese corporate assets in South Korea can be liquidated after being seized in recent lawsuits.
The comments came a day after Park and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi agreed to seek a quick settlement of the dispute over compensation demands from South Koreans related to wartime labor.
In the first formal sit-down between the foreign ministers since Yoon's inauguration in May, Park vowed to make efforts to produce "desirable solutions" before the asset liquidation, which could be initiated by South Korea's top court possibly in August or September.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said in a press conference Tuesday morning that the liquidation "must be avoided as it will have serious consequences for Japan-South Korea relations."
Japan maintains all issues related to its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, including the issue of compensation for requisitioned Korean workers as well as comfort women, were settled "completely and finally" under a bilateral agreement signed in 1965.
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