S.Korea, Japan to hold diplomatic talks

SEUOL, Oct 15 (XINHUA/APP): South Korea and Japan will hold working-level diplomatic talks in Seoul Wednesday amid the ongoing friction over trade and historical issues between the two countries, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Tuesday.

Kim Jong-han, director-general for Asian and Pacific affairs of the South Korean foreign ministry, will meet with his Japanese counterpart Shigeki Takizaki to discuss issues of mutual concern.

Takizaki will also hold talks in the day with Lee Do-hoon, South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs in charge of issues on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The working-level dialogues would come ahead of South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon’s planned attendance at the enthronement ceremony of Japanese Emperor Naruhito slated for Oct. 22 in Tokyo.

Kore-eda urges ‘solidarity’ as Japan-South Korea trade war rumbles on

Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have soured since Japan tightened control in July over its export to South Korea of three materials vital to produce memory chips and display panels, the mainstay of the South Korean export.

In August, Japan dropped South Korea off its white list of trusted trading partners that are given preferential export procedure. In response, Seoul took Tokyo off its white list of trusted export partners.

Japan’s export curbs came after South Korean top court’s ruling that ordered some of Japanese companies to compensate the South Korean victims who were forced into hard labor without pay during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

Japan claimed that all colonial-era issues were settled through the 1965 treaty, which normalized diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo, but South Korea said the accord did not involve individuals’ right to reparation.

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