Yoon to visit Japan next week for summit with Kishida

• Published date: 09 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

President Yoon Suk Yeol will visit Tokyo next week for a summit with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, his office said Thursday, the first bilateral presidential trip to Japan in 12 years made possible after Seoul announced a solution to a dispute over wartime forced labor.

The March 16-17 trip will be the first such visit since former President Lee Myung-bak traveled to the neighboring country in 2011. Former President Moon Jae-in visited Osaka in 2019, but that trip was for a summit of the Group of 20 nations, not a bilateral visit.

"The visit will become an important milestone for the improvement and development of South Korea-Japan relations," the presidential office said in a statement.

"Through President Yoon's visit to Japan, we hope cooperation across various areas, including security, economy, society and culture, will be expanded in order for South Korea and Japan to overcome the unfortunate history of the past and move toward the future, and that exchanges between the two countries' peoples will be further vitalized," it added.

Other details of Yoon's itinerary in Japan are still under discussion, it said.

The trip will come less than two weeks after Seoul...