South Korea Displeased With Japanese Media Coverage Of Yoon-Kishida Summit - Official

Seoul has expressed dissatisfaction with the way Japanese media covered South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's recent meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, where the two leaders agreed to normalize relations and restart strategic dialogue at various levels, a presidential official said on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th March, 2023) Seoul has expressed dissatisfaction with the way Japanese media covered South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's recent meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, where the two leaders agreed to normalize relations and restart strategic dialogue at various levels, a presidential official said on Monday.

Following the talks last week, Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported that Kishida had urged Yoon to lift restrictions on imports of seafood and implement the 2015 deal on the resolution of the "comfort women" issue. Other Japanese media outlets reported that Kishida had also raised the issue of sovereignty over the disputed islands of Dokdo/Takeshima, also known as the Liancourt Rocks.

"With regard to the completely groundless or distorted reports coming out of Japan after the summit, I understand that our diplomatic authorities have expressed regret and asked for a prevention of a recurrence," the South Korean presidential official was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying.

Neither the "comfort women" issue, nor the Dokdo Islands were discussed at the meeting between Kishida and Yoon, the official said, adding that other details of the leaders' discussions could not be disclosed.

The "comfort women" system was set up by the Japanese imperial forces in occupied countries, including South Korea, during Tokyo's colonial rule, which lasted from 1910-1945 over the Korean Peninsula. Under the scheme, up to 200,000 young women and girls were sexually enslaved for the military. The issue remains a stumbling block in relations between Tokyo and Seoul together with the Liancourt Rocks, to which both sides claim to have long-standing historical ties.