South Korea, Japan finance heads to hold first talks since 2016

South Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho tells reporters he will meet with his Japanese counterpart next month.

South Korea and Japan’s finance ministers will hold a bilateral meeting early next month for the first time in seven years to announce closer cooperation on economic policies hampered by diplomatic clashes.

South Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho told reporters during a visit to the United States that he has agreed with Japan’s Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, according to a report by the media pool.

They will meet on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) annual meetings, to be held May 2-5 in Incheon, South Korea, though other details have yet to be decided, Choo said.

“It’s important because it will be the first step towards reviving regular bilateral meetings,” Choo said, without elaborating.

Regular annual meetings between the two countries’ finance ministers have been suspended since 2016 over war history disputes.

But last month at a summit between South Korean Yoon Suk Yeol and Japan’s Fumio Kishidathe two neighbors pledged to put aside their difficult shared history and said they would work together to face regional security challenges.

Financial markets will likely be watching closely whether finance ministers will discuss the resumption of a bilateral currency swap agreement – ​​an agreement that had served as a safety net against a potential currency crisis but expired in February 2015.