SEOUL (Reuters) -The leaders of Japan and South Korea promised to turn the page on years of animosity at a meeting on Thursday, putting aside their difficult shared history and pledging to work together to counter regional security challenges.
The summit between South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol and Japan’s Fumio Kishida in Tokyo - the first visit to Japan by a South Korean president in 12 years - highlighted how the two U.S. allies have been brought closer by North Korea’s frequent missile launches and growing concern over China’s more muscular role on the international stage.
The urgency of the regional security situation - and the threat posed by North Korea - were underscored hours before Yoon’s arrival, when North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.
Washington hailed the summit, calling Japan and South Korea “indispensable allies”.
Seoul-Tokyo tensions have long undercut U.S.-led efforts to present a united front against China and North Korea.
The two countries agreed to drop an almost four-year trade dispute on some high-tech materials used for chips, something that dogged their relationship even as the political importance of semiconductors, and securing their supply, has increased.
They also agreed to revive regular bilateral visits and to restart a security dialogue suspended since 2018. Yoon also declared a “complete normalisation” of an intelligence-sharing pact, known as GSOMIA, which Seoul threatened to pull out of in 2019.