Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan (left) shakes fingers with President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea forward of their summit on Oct. 30, 2025, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Gyeongju, South Korea. (pool photograph)
Assembly Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for the primary time on Thursday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung confused the necessity for his or her two nations to strengthen future-oriented cooperation and emphasised the function of shuttle diplomacy in doing so.
“The present strategic setting amplifies the significance of Japan-South Korea relations and Japan-South Korea cooperation,” Lee advised his counterpart.
The 2 leaders met on the third ground of the Gyeongju Hwabaek Worldwide Conference Heart at 6 pm on Thursday for Takaichi’s first summit with Lee since her inauguration as Japanese prime minister final week.
Lee mentioned he concurred with Takaichi’s feedback throughout a press convention following her inauguration, referring to Korea as Japan’s “essential neighbor,” expressing the rising significance of bilateral relations and her hopes to develop them additional in a “future-oriented” method.
“Not solely do I full-heartedly agree, however her phrases are precisely what I’ve mentioned all alongside —phrase for phrase,” Lee mentioned.
Throughout a briefing, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung mentioned that Takaichi advised Lee that she hoped that South Korea and Japan might type a “broad partnership on a safety, financial, and societal degree.”
Lee reportedly expressed hope that the 2 sides might “develop relations by way of financial, society, safety, and personal sector exchanges,” whereas noting that Korea and Japan “share democratic values and order.”
Each leaders additionally reaffirmed their intentions to normalize shuttle diplomacy. Lee advised to Takaichi that they maintain their subsequent summit in a smaller provincial metropolis in Japan moderately than in Tokyo. Takaichi reportedly welcomed the concept.
Neither facet talked about thorny historic points.
“President Lee mentioned that as South Korea and Japan are neighbors so shut we share the identical entrance yard, each side appear to harm one another emotionally as members of the family do, to which Takaichi expressed robust settlement,” Kang, the spokesperson, mentioned.
By Shin Hyeong-cheol, employees reporter; Um Ji-won, employees reporter
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