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In this file photo, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol (left) and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pose for a photo prior to their talks in New York on Sept. 21, 2022, as they meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. (Yonhap) |
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- President Yoon Suk-yeol will hold a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of regional gatherings in Cambodia on Sunday, his office said.
A presidential official told reporters the summit was fixed Saturday, as both leaders are in Phnom Penh to attend various summits involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The two sides agreed on the need for a summit given the importance of security cooperation in the wake of North Korea's increased provocations, the official said.
Recent trilateral security cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan also provided an "impetus" for a South Korea-Japan summit, the official added.
Yoon is expected to meet first with Kishida and then with US President Joe Biden before taking part in a trilateral summit involving all three.
The meetings come amid heightened tensions over North Korea's recent weapons tests, including the launch of a ballistic missile over Japan and the apparent failed test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korea is widely expected to conduct what would be its seventh nuclear test soon.
Sunday's summit will be the second time Yoon and Kishida have met.
The two leaders held their first bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September, which marked the first one-on-one talks between the leaders of the two nations since December 2019, and raised hope of improving relations badly frayed over wartime forced labor and other issues related to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
During that meeting, Yoon and Kishida agreed on the need to improve relations between the two countries by resolving pending issues.
Yoon has also been expected to use his trip to Southeast Asia to hold his first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping when both attend a Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, next week.
When asked about the possibility of a Yoon-Xi summit, the presidential official said, "I think you'll have to continue to stay tuned."
