S.Korean finance minister to meet Japanese counterpart in May amid thawing relations

Washington, April 16 (IANS) South Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho has said he will meet with his Japanese counterpart, Shunichi Suzuki, next month, the first meeting between the finance ministers of the two neighbours in nearly seven years in the latest sign of a thaw in diplomatic relations.

The agreement was made in Washington where the two attended the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' meeting, Choo said last Thursday (local time), Yonhap News Agency reported.

"Since the two leaders initiated a watershed moment (for cooperation) during their summit, we need to start working-level consultations in each sector, and there is a need to expand cooperative relations with Japan's finance ministry in economy and finance," Choo said while meeting with Korean reporters.

Choo will meet with Suzuki on the sidelines of the 56th Asian Development Bank Annual Meeting to be held in Songdo, Incheon, from May 2-5.

It will mark the first in nearly seven years since August 2016, when then South Korean Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho met with his counterpart, Taro Aso.

The two countries' relations had been seriously strained over historical disputes stemming from Tokyo's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

In March, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a summit to improve bilateral relations after years of animosity, and to resolve pending issues ranging from compensating wartime forced labor victims to lifting retaliatory export curbs.

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