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Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso left for Seoul on Wednesday to meet with South Korean officials as the two countries try to improve ties that were badly strained by Japanese wartime atrocities.
At the center of the disputes between the two countries are South Korean court rulings in 2018 that ordered Japanese companies to compensate wartime forced Korean laborers. The Japanese government and the companies have refused to comply with the rulings, saying all compensation issues have been settled under a 1965 normalization treaty and accusing South Korea of violating the international law.
But ties have started showing signs of improvement since South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s conservative government took power in May. As key Asian allies to the United States, having a strained relationship also poses a concern for their security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region as it faces growing threats from China and North Korea.
