Japan and South Korea agree on improving bilateral ties
(VOVWORLD) - The Japanese and South Korean Foreign Ministers on Saturday underscored the need for improving bilateral relations strained over wartime issues.
 Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi (R) and his South Korean counterpart Park Jin at a meeting in Tokyo on July 18, 2022. (Photo: AFP/VNA) |
The online remarks by Yoshimasa Hayashi and Park Jin came as the South Korean Supreme Court is expected to decide soon if it will finalize a court order to liquidate assets seized from one of two Japanese firms sued over alleged forced labor during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
In late 2018, the top court ordered the companies, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Nippon Steel Corp., to pay damages.
But they did not comply with the order as the Japanese government has maintained that all claims stemming from its colonial rule were completely settled under a bilateral agreement signed in 1965 when both countries normalized their diplomatic ties.