Yoon says Kishida visit to Korean memorial in Hiroshima a 'brave act'

Two countries also hold brief trilateral meeting with shared ally U.S.

20230521 Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb

South Korea's Yoon Suk Yeol (2nd L), his wife Kim Keon Hee (L), Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife Yuko Kishida bow as they lay flowers at the "Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb", near the Peace Park Memorial in Hiroshima on May 21. (Photo by Mizuho Miyazaki)

STEVEN BOROWIEC, Nikkei staff writer

May 21, 2023 09:19 JST

Updated on May 21, 2023 14:54 JST

HIROSHIMA, Japan -- The leaders of Japan and South Korea held their third bilateral summit this year after a highly symbolic joint visit to a World War II-era monument in Hiroshima, showing the ongoing warming of the fractious relationship between the two neighbors.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was in the city devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb in the final days of World War II to attend the Group of Seven summit as a guest. Early Sunday morning, he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited a memorial to those who died in the 1945 atomic bombing of the city, which features a separate monument to Koreans who lost their lives.