SEOUL (Reuters) – The foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan will hold talks in the South Korean capital on Monday, as key U.S. allies seek to underscore improving relations and shared security concerns amid the worst political crisis in decades in Seoul.
The meeting between South Korea's Cho Tae-yul and Japan's Takeshi Iwaya represents the first of its kind between the two countries since President Yeon Suk-yul briefly imposed martial law last month, a move that stunned South Koreans.
Yoon has been holed up in his hillside villa in Seoul since Parliament voted to impeach and suspend him last month over his Dec. 3 martial law decree, with investigators vowing to arrest him after a failed attempt earlier this month.
The Japanese government said Iwaya is also scheduled to meet with acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mook.
As US President-elect Donald Trump's administration begins on January 20, none of the original leaders who established a trilateral security cooperation agreement between the two countries in 2023 – US President Joe Biden, Yoon, and former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida – will remain in power.
Under Yoon and Kishida, relations between Seoul and Tokyo improved sharply after falling to their lowest level in decades amid sharp diplomatic and trade disputes over Japan's occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Yoon has made it a diplomatic priority to repair relations with Tokyo and improve security cooperation, including with Washington, to confront North Korea's military threats.
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a visit to South Korea, expressed confidence in the democratic process in Seoul, but said that Washington had expressed “serious concerns” about some of the actions Yoon took during the declaration of martial law.
Despite opinion polls showing that a majority of South Koreans disapprove of Yoon's declaration of martial law and support his impeachment, the ruling People Power Party has enjoyed a jump in support.
The poll said that support for the Pakistan People's Party reached 40.8% in the latest opinion poll issued on Monday, while support for the main opposition Democratic Party reached 42.2%, within a margin of error and down from a gap of 10.8% from last week.
