Japan And South Korea Need To Repair Ties, Cooperate On North Korea - PM

Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Thursday held his first telephone call with his South Korean counterpart since taking office, telling President Moon Jae-in that the neighbors should work to resolve their strained relations.

The talks, proposed by South Korea, were the first contact in nine months between leaders of the two countries. Relations between Japan and South Korea deteriorated to their worst levels in years under Suga's predecessor, Shinzo Abe, a military hawk viewed by some as not apologetic enough over Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945.

I told President Moon that relations between the two countries are in a very severe condition right now and we should not leave this unresolved,(asterisk) Suga told reporters.