Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi gestures after talking to reporters about GSOMIA pact with South Korea during G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in Nagoya, Japan, November 22, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) – Japan’s foreign minister said he plans to discuss the contentious issue of wartime laborers on the Korean peninsula at a meeting with his South Korean counterpart on Saturday, a day after Seoul pulled back from the brink an intelligence-sharing deal with Tokyo.
The comments from Toshimitsu Motegi, at a news conference during a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in the central Japanese city of Nagoya, are the latest sign the two Asian nations may be moving to improve ties.
A long-burning historical dispute – particularly about the issue of forced labor on the Korean peninsula during World War Two – has damaged relations between the two U.S. allies.
Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Neil Fullick