South Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho told reporters he will meet with his Japanese counterpart next month.
South Korean and Japanese finance ministers will hold their first bilateral meeting in seven years early next month, heralding closer cooperation on economic policy that has been hampered by the diplomatic clash.
According to a joint media report, South Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho told reporters during his visit to the United States that he had agreed to meet Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki.
Choo said they will meet on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) annual meeting scheduled for May 2-5 in Incheon, South Korea, but other details have yet to be finalized.
“This is important because it will be the first step towards resuming regular bilateral meetings,” Choo said, without elaborating.
Regular annual meetings between the two countries’ finance ministers have been suspended since 2016 because of a dispute over their wartime history.
But last month, at a summit between South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol and Japan’s Fumio Kishida, the two neighbors pledged to put aside their shared difficult history and said they would work together to address regional security challenges.
Financial markets are likely to be watching closely to see if finance ministers discuss reviving the bilateral currency swap arrangement – which was used as a backstop for any potential currency crisis but expired in February 2015.
