Japan and South Korea yesterday said that they would continue to work together to address issues related to North Korea, Kyodo News Agency reported.
Japanese foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa and her counterpart Cho Tae Yul met in person on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meet in Rio de Janeiro.
The meeting comes a month after both the ministers spoke and shared concerns about “provocative acts” by North Korea. They agreed to address the human rights violations carried out by Pyongyang, including its abductions of Japanese nationals decades ago, a sticking point in Japanese and North Korean relations.
Both sides, however, remained apart on the issue of forced labour during its brutal decades-long occupation of the Korean peninsula before and during World War II.
Seoul says that around 780,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced wartime labour including women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.
Tokyo has said that the 1965 treaty signed between both the countries in grants and cheap loans does not give the government the right to sue Korea.
Over the past few months, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has upped his ante with moves aimed at flaunting its military might including doing more missile tests, tearing down a monument in Pyongyang that symbolised the hopes of unification among others.
Earlier, he has said that PyongYang has the legal right to annihilate South Korea.The remarks came at the anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s military on February 8.
Describing Seoul as “enemy No.1,” Kim said that he would never hold dialogue or negotiations with South Korea and that the only way there can be lasting peace in the region is when the powerful military in the North is ready for any eventuality.
However, North Korea’s relations with Japan may see an improvement in days to come after the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, expressed optimism that relations between North Korea and Japan could improve.
In a career spanning three decades and counting, Ramananda (Ram to his friends) has been the foreign editor of The Telegraph, Outlook Magazine and the New Indian Express. He helped set up rediff.com’s editorial operations in San Jose and New York, helmed sify.com, and was the founder editor of India.com.
His work has featured in national and international publications like the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Global Times and Ashahi Shimbun. But his one constant over all these years, he says, has been the attempt to understand rising India’s place in the world.
He can rustle up a mean salad, his oil-less pepper chicken is to die for, and all it takes is some beer and rhythm and blues to rock his soul.
Talk to him about foreign and strategic affairs, media, South Asia, China, and of course India.
