Foreign Ministers of Korea and Japan held a brief meeting... "I hope the relationship will not be affected by the memorial service."

Amid the discord over the Sado mine memorial ceremony, the foreign ministers of Korea and Japan met at the G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Italy.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the 26th local time that Minister Cho Tae-yeol and Foreign Minister Takeshi held a brief meeting on the occasion of the G7 meeting to discuss the Sado mine.

The two ministers agreed to ensure that the issue raised by the Sado mine memorial service would not affect the development of bilateral relations and to continue the positive momentum of bilateral cooperation so far, the ministry explained.

Japan held a promised memorial ceremony yesterday (24th) when it listed Sado Mine, a site of forced labor for Koreans in Japanese colonial era, as a UNESCO cultural heritage in July, but our government notified us of our absence from the event a day ago because our position was not reflected in key matters such as the eulogy.