South Korea and Japan will hold high-level talks in Seoul this week to discuss bilateral and regional economic issues such as trade and investment, officials here said Wednesday.
Ahn Chong-ghee, deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, will represent South Korea in the Thursday meeting with his Japanese counterpart Yasumasa Nagamine according to Seoul’s foreign ministry. The meeting will mark the second of its kind since the inauguration of the Park Geun-hye administration in February 2013.
“The two sides plan to assess current economic issues and discuss how to cooperate for future-oriented relations on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties,” said an official at the foreign ministry, asking not to be named.
Japan’s pursuit of massive monetary easing has unnerved South Korea as the yen’s weakness makes prices of South Korean products more expensive in overseas markets. Seoul may express its concerns over the impact of Tokyo’s quantitative easing, sources said.
Japan is likely to renew its calls on South Korea to resume its imports of Japanese fishery goods, they said.
Since September 2013, South Korea has banned imports of all fishery products from eight Japanese prefectures near the site of a nuclear accident in Fukushima.
Seoul-Tokyo ties have plunged into their lowest point in recent years due to Japan’s repeated attempts to deny its wartime atrocities such as sex slavery. Japan colonized Korea from 1910-1945, with the countries establishing diplomatic relations in 1965.
The two sides have vowed to make more efforts to make 2015 a year for producing a turning point in their ties. (Yonhap)
