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President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea shakes hands with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan following a joint press conference held after their summit in Tokyo on March 16. (Yonhap)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will hold a summit on Sunday in Seoul. Coming amid domestic criticism of Yoon for “one-sided appeasement” diplomacy, the meeting is expected to focus on national security and economic cooperation, rather than a gesture of good faith from Japan on the two countries’ thorny history.

The Seoul presidential office said in a press release on Tuesday that Kishida is scheduled to arrive on May 7 for a two-day working visit to South Korea.

The press release stated that Yoon had invited Kishida to visit South Korea while in Tokyo for their summit last month.

Kishida’s visit will mark the earnest resumption of shuttle diplomacy between the two countries’ leaders, the South Korean presidential office said.

Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also announced that the summit will take place on May 7.

This will be the first time in around 11 and a half years that a sitting Japanese prime minister will visit Seoul for bilateral talks, with the last visit being that of Yoshihiko Noda in October 2011, at the invitation of then-President Lee Myung-bak.

Kishida’s trip will be a working visit, as was Yoon’s in March.

The meeting between the two leaders will take place around 50 days after their summit in Tokyo on March 16.

Kishida was initially expected to visit Korea in the summer, after the Group of Seven summit in Japan later this month, but the trip was pulled forward.

The move appears to be an attempt to avoid a situation where Yoon pays successive visits to Japan in March and May without his counterpart following suit after declaring “shuttle diplomacy” between the two countries to have been restored.

Japan may be responding to Yoon’s repeated emphasis on trilateral cooperation with the US and Japan at his summit with US President Joe Biden in Washington late last month.

The agenda for the meeting is expected to include national security and economic cooperation, the North Korea issue, regional and international affairs, social and cultural exchanges, and follow-up measures to improve bilateral ties, according to the presidential office.

Specifically, measures to share information to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests and cooperation in industries such as semiconductors will also be discussed.

While the Korean public has been vigorously calling for corresponding measures from Japan on past historical issues, Yoon’s office has been cautious, emphasizing “future-oriented cooperation.”

The general consensus is that Kishida’s last-minute visit is unlikely to change Japan’s current stance on historical matters.

The Japanese prime minister will be accompanied by his wife, Yuko Kishida, who is expected to have a separate meeting with Kim Keon-hee, South Korea’s first lady.

Prior to the two leaders’ meeting, Japan’s national security advisor, Takeo Akiba, will visit South Korea for three days for talks with his Korean counterpart, Cho Tae-yong. This is the first visit by a Japanese national security advisor to South Korea since 2014.

Akiba’s visit will also coincide with the South Korea-Japan economic and security dialogue.

Launched as a follow-up to the Yoon-Kishida summit in March, the dialogue will discuss ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation on supply chains and high-tech sectors, the presidential office added.

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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