China News Service, April 1, According to Kyodo News Agency of Japan, on April 1, local time, the heads of foreign affairs departments of Japan and South Korea held talks in Tokyo, aiming to find ways to improve the historical issues that have been exacerbated by the expropriated labor lawsuits. Japan-South Korea relations.
However, it is not clear whether the South Korean side will propose an acceptable solution that the Japanese government hopes, and consultations may ultimately fail to reach an agreement.
According to reports, since October 2020, Japan and South Korea have once again held face-to-face consultations at the director level.
Takeshi Funakoshi, Director of Asia and Oceania, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and Lee Sangyeol, Director of Asia and Pacific, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, attended the meeting.
Regarding the original conscripted labor lawsuits and the original "comfort women" lawsuits, the Japanese side again asked the South Korean side to respond in consultations.
South Korea opposes Japanese high school textbooks describing "Takeshima" (called "Dokdo" in South Korea) as Japan's "inherent territory", which may be mentioned in the negotiations.
The report pointed out that since the Seoul Central District Court in January ordered the Japanese government to pay compensation to the original "comfort women", Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and South Korean Foreign Minister Zheng Yirong had not yet held a telephone conversation.
Japan, the United States and South Korea plan to hold a meeting of the three foreign ministers in the United States in late April at the earliest, and the restoration of Japan-South Korea relations has become one of the focuses.