South Korea's top diplomat is in Thailand for the ASEAN Regional Forum.
Kang Kyung-wha will hold bilateral talks with her counterparts from several countries,...including Japan.
Could this be a sign that the two countries might be willing to reach a compromise over Tokyo's export curbs on Seoul?
South Korea is hoping for a breakthrough as Japan looks set to take Seoul off its whitelist of countries with preferential trade conditions... so a BIG day ahead.
For more, let's connect to our foreign affairs correspondent Lee Ji-won, who is in Bangkok for us.
Ji-won.
Ji-yoon, the bilateral sitdown between Ministers Kang Kyung-wha and Taro Kono ended just about half an hour ago.
The meeting took place for about 40 minutes.
This is the first time the two diplomats met face-to-face after Japan imposed retaliatory trade restrictions on Seoul in July.
While we don't have many details on the talks for now,... the pool reporters at the site say that the ministers seemed tense and reserved.
We are told that only the ministers, the director-generals of the respective bureaus and their translators attended the meeting.
Now, Minister Kang said previously that in today's talks, she will strongly convey Seoul's stance to Kono that Tokyo's export controls are unfair, while hoping to get Japan's understanding that diplomatic talks are needed going forward so their bilateral ties don't completely fall apart.
And Kang will soon begin another sitdown, this time with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
In the afternoon,... she'll have more bilateral discussions before she attends her first multinational ministerial meeting with her ASEAN counterparts at 4 PM, local time.
I will bring you more updates throughout the day, once the details are out.
Kang Kyung-wha will hold bilateral talks with her counterparts from several countries,...including Japan.
Could this be a sign that the two countries might be willing to reach a compromise over Tokyo's export curbs on Seoul?
South Korea is hoping for a breakthrough as Japan looks set to take Seoul off its whitelist of countries with preferential trade conditions... so a BIG day ahead.
For more, let's connect to our foreign affairs correspondent Lee Ji-won, who is in Bangkok for us.
Ji-won.
Ji-yoon, the bilateral sitdown between Ministers Kang Kyung-wha and Taro Kono ended just about half an hour ago.
The meeting took place for about 40 minutes.
This is the first time the two diplomats met face-to-face after Japan imposed retaliatory trade restrictions on Seoul in July.
While we don't have many details on the talks for now,... the pool reporters at the site say that the ministers seemed tense and reserved.
We are told that only the ministers, the director-generals of the respective bureaus and their translators attended the meeting.
Now, Minister Kang said previously that in today's talks, she will strongly convey Seoul's stance to Kono that Tokyo's export controls are unfair, while hoping to get Japan's understanding that diplomatic talks are needed going forward so their bilateral ties don't completely fall apart.
And Kang will soon begin another sitdown, this time with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
In the afternoon,... she'll have more bilateral discussions before she attends her first multinational ministerial meeting with her ASEAN counterparts at 4 PM, local time.
I will bring you more updates throughout the day, once the details are out.
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