Japanese PM Kishida due in S. Korea for last summit with Yoon

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to visit South Korea on Friday for talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol as Kishida is preparing to leave office with a legacy of improving long-frayed relations with Seoul.

Yoon and Kishida are scheduled to hold summit talks later Friday, their 12th summit in just about two years. It will also be their last summit as Kishida has given up on reelection as prime minister and leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after three years on the job.

During the summit, the two leaders plan to look back on the achievement of cooperation between the two countries and discuss ways to further move bilateral, regional, and international cooperation forward, according to Yoon's office.

Yoon and Kishida have developed close bonds after Yoon decided last year to resolve the long-running row over Japan's wartime mobilization of Koreans for forced labor by compensating victims without asking Japanese firms for contributions.

The two leaders have since restored the long-suspended "shuttle diplomacy" of visiting each other whenever necessary and held a series of meetings on the sidelines of international conferences.

The restored ties have also significantly bolstered trilateral security cooperation with the United States in response to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

In August 2023, US President Joe Biden invited Yoon and Kishida to Camp David for a standalone summit, where the three leaders committed to strengthen joint responses to North Korea's threats and other regional security challenges. (Yonhap)