TOKYO: South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin kicked off a three-day visit to Japan on Monday as the two nations explore ways to warm their icy ties, seen as the worst in decades. Relations between the two neighbours have long been overshadowed by bitter memories of Japan's brutal colonial rule of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

Newly elected South Korean leader Yoon Suk-yeol has made active efforts to improve his ties with Japan, including sending a diplomatic mission to Tokyo before his inauguration in May. Shortly after arriving in Tokyo, Park met his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi.

Officials are also reportedly trying to arrange for Park to pay a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and express condolences for former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated earlier this month.

Park and Hayashi posed for photos but stayed silent in front of the cameras and there was no schedule to address the media on Monday. Both Japan and South Korea are seen by the United States as linchpins in Washington's pushback against rising Chinese commercial and military power, as well as crucial partners in dealing with an unpredictable North Korea.

But Tokyo and Seoul have been locked in a bitter trade and diplomatic row as they remain suspicious of each other over how to address emotional issues including compensation for World War II sex slaves and forced labour.

South Korea says Japan hasn't atoned enough, while Tokyo argues that a 1965 bilateral treaty resolved claims between the two nations. As ties deteriorated under Abe and Yoon's predecessor, Moon Jae-in, Japan in 2019 toughened South Korea-bound export rules for materials necessary to produce semiconductors. South Korea also threatened to terminate a bilateral military agreement to share defence secrets. - AFP