Japan, South Korea meet in Madrid

MADRID Kyodo Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol spoke briefly Tuesday in Madrid, both governments said, in their first face-to- face encounter with chilly ties over wartime issues.

The conversation took place on the fringes of a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which the two leaders are attending, keeping hopes alive for a thaw in bilateral relations under Yoon, who became president in May with a pledge to take a future-oriented approach.

Kishida told Yoon at a dinner hosted by King Felipe VI of Spain he hopes the South Korean president will work to restore the countries' extremely severe relations to a healthy state, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

South Korea's presidential office said the conversation lasted three to four minutes and quoted Yoon as telling Kishida that he intends to resolve pending issues of concern to both nations swiftly after Japan's upper house election and move forward in a future-oriented manner.

The latest encounter came at a delicate time for Kishida ahead of the House of Councillors election on July 10.

He needs the support of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's conservative base, which believes that the government should take a firm stance against disputes over compensation related to Japan's 1910 -- 1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula that continue to cast a shadow over ties between the U.S. allies.

After the South Korean Supreme Court ordered two Japanese companies to pay damages to Korean plaintiffs over their forced labor, bilateral relations worsened during Yoon's predecessor Moon Jae In.

The companies did not comply with the orders, because of Tokyo's position that wartime compensation issues were settled by a bilateral agreement in 1965, under which Japan provided grants and loans to South Korea.

Prior to the NATO summit, reports emerged that the South Korean government is preparing a public-private body for officials and experts to examine how to deal with wartime labor issues.

Another dispute over comfort women procured for Japan's wartime military brothels has hurt diplomatic relations, as Tokyo continues to urge Seoul to follow through on a 2015 accord that settled the issue finally and irreversibly. The fraying of ties comes as the United States has taken greater importance in countering North Korea's missile and nuclear threats.

As Japan and South Korea looked at how to cope with an assertive China, the brief conversation came as NATO reviewed its own approach. Kishida and Yoon were invited to join the NATO summit as their nations are NATO partners.

In March, Kishida spoke with Yoon by phone shortly after the conservative main opposition party candidate won the presidential election and expressed his hope of holding an in-person meeting.