民主党：Okada meets with ROK President Park, hears her call for both countries to make this year the first of a new era in forwarding bilateral relations


ニュース

2015/08/03
Okada meets with ROK President Park, hears her call for both countries to make this year the first of a new era in forwarding bilateral relations

Okada and Park Photo distributed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea

Okada and other members meet with Yun

In the morning of August 3, DPJ President Katsuya Okada, on a visit to the Republic of Korea (ROK) from the previous day, met with President Park Geun-hye at the Blue House for discussions lasting around 40 minutes. Both Okada and Park agreed on the importance of the bilateral relationship between Japan and the ROK, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations this year. The two exchanged opinions on a wide range of topics including the bilateral relations, historical perceptions, and security issues.

In the afternoon of the same day, Okada met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se at the Ministry for about one hour. The two had also met when Yun visited Tokyo in June, and so were able to continue their discussions on bilateral relations and other issues begun on that occasion and take them to a more substantial level.

Following these meetings, Okada held a press conference for approximately one hour at a venue in Seoul. He outlined the content of the discussions, particularly those with President Park, to reporters.

At the beginning of the press conference, Okada cited a comment made by President Park, who had said: “Let’s make this year, the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII and the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations, the first of a new era in moving our bilateral relations forward.” He commented, “Overall, it was an extremely good meeting. The President chose her words carefully, but I could sense her strong commitment toward improving bilateral relations.”

The DPJ delegation accompanying Okada to the ROK includes member of the House of Representatives Kiyomi Tsujimoto (Deputy Chair, DPJ Policy Research Committee), member of the House of Councillors Kohei Otsuka (Deputy Chair, DPJ Policy Research Committee), member of the House of Representatives Yosuke Kondo (Director-General, DPJ Executive Office), and member of the House of Representatives Takeshi Miyazaki.