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KANANASKIS, Canada — At their first face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the G7 leaders summit in Canada, the leaders of South Korea and Japan vowed Wednesday to boost cooperation in the face of growing threats from the nuclear-armed North.
Newly-elected South Korean President Lee Jae-myung met his Japanese counterpart Shigeru Ishiba, saying he hoped the talk would mark "the beginning of a more forward-looking and improved relationship between Korea and Japan," according to a readout from Lee's office.
South Korea and Japan are both US allies and economically advanced democracies, but bilateral ties have been strained by historic issues stemming from Japan's 35-year colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, including the use of wartime sex slaves.
The neighboring countries had drawn closer under Lee's impeached predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, who was known for his hardline stance on North Korea and for strengthening military ties with Tokyo and Washington to counter Pyongyang.
Lee, who took office this month following a snap election triggered by Yoon's disastrous martial law attempt in December, has pledged a more conciliatory approach toward Pyongyang.
But Lee and Ishiba confirmed that Seoul, Washington and Tokyo "would continue to work closely together... on the policies toward North Korea, including on the nuclear and missile issues as well as the abductions issue", Tokyo's foreign ministry said in a statement.
South Korea's presidential office also said Lee and Ishiba agreed to advance their three-way cooperation with Washington to cope with "geopolitical crisis, including North Korea", according to Seoul's Yonhap news agency.
"Like neighbors who share the same front yard, our two countries are bound by a relationship that cannot easily be separated," Lee said during the meeting, according to his office.
"In particular, as challenges in the global trade environment and international relations grow more complex, I believe that close and complementary cooperation between Korea and Japan will be of great benefit to both our countries."
The meeting took place as Sergei Shoigu, the head of Russia's Security Council, held talks with leader Kim Jong Un in North Korea for the second time in less than two weeks.
Russia and North Korea signed a sweeping military deal last year, including a mutual defense clause, during a rare visit by Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the nuclear-armed North.
Shoigu said this week North Korea would send "a division of builders, two military brigades -- 5,000 people" as well as 1,000 deminers to Russia's western Kursk region after Ukraine's incursion, according to Russian news agencies.
Relations between Japan and North Korea have long been strained, including over the kidnapping of Japanese people in the 1970s and 1980s and North Korea's banned weapons programs.