SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will meet Japan’s prime minister in Tokyo next week on his way to a planned sitdown with US President Donald Trump, both governments said Wednesday.

Lee had previously announced an August 25 meeting in Washington where he and Trump are to hammer out details of their recent trade deal.

His August 23-24 summit with Japanese Prime Minister ISHIBA Shigeru will “solidify the foundation for future-oriented cooperation” between the two leaders, presidential spokeswoman Kang Yu-jung told a press briefing.

The two “will have a frank exchange of views not only on ways to strengthen trilateral cooperation among South Korea, Japan and the United States, but also on regional peace and stability”, she added.

Tokyo confirmed the visit, describing South Korea as an “important neighbour Japan should cooperate with as a partner”.

“Under the current strategic environment, the importance of Japan-South Korea relationships and the cooperation among Japan, the United States and South Korea is only growing,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

In return for avoiding threatened tariffs of 25 percent to 15 percent, both countries agreed last month to trade deals with Washington involving announcements of huge investments into the United States.

The neighbours enjoyed a warm relationship during the presidency of Lee’s predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, whose five-year term was cut short by impeachment over his declaration of martial law.

Yoon sought to bring the bilateral relationship — often fraught with disputes stemming from Tokyo’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula — closer by setting aside historical grievances to better counter North Korea’s nuclear threats.

But his impeachment and removal from office in April prompted a snap election won by Lee in June.

Lee last month told a press conference that Seoul and Tokyo were “part of the liberal democratic camp, share many common interests in the military sphere, and have significant potential for economic cooperation”, adding the two were “inseparably linked”.

AFP