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President Yoon Suk-yeol (left) shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during their informal summit in New York on Sept. 21. (Yonhap)

In an informal summit on Wednesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida “sympathized on the need to improve bilateral relations and agreed to continue cooperating while also instructing diplomats to accelerate dialogue,” Korea’s presidential office said.

This was the first time the leaders of the two countries have met since December 2019, two years and nine months ago, when the then-serving President Moon Jae-in of Korea and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan met.

“While visiting New York to attend the UN General Assembly, President Yoon Suk-yeol met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at 12:23 pm for 30 minutes at a conference building near the UN General Assembly Building and traded opinions about matters of mutual interest. This was the first meeting between the leaders of the two countries since President Yoon’s inauguration as president,” said Lee Jae-myeong, deputy spokesperson for the presidential office, in a written statement to the press on Wednesday.

Lee added that the two leaders “share the desire to build solidarity with the international community and to continue cooperating in defense of universal values that we hold in common, including liberal democracy, human rights and the rule of law. They are both seriously concerned about North Korea’s nuclear program, including recent legislation about the North’s nuclear forces and the possibility of a seventh nuclear weapon test, and are unified in their support for continuing to cooperate closely with the international community in response [to that program].”

Lee added that the two leaders agreed to remain in communication with each other.

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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