South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (left) and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio hold a summit in Hiroshima on May 21. (Source: Yonhap)

This is the third meeting between the Japanese and South Korean leaders in just two months, as the two countries seek to mend diplomatic relations that have been affected by Korea's past as a Japanese colony.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the G7 Summit. The previous two summits were held in Tokyo in March and in Seoul in early May, respectively, within the framework of bilateral visits by the leaders of the two countries.

Earlier in the day, host country Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the memorial to South Korean victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

Relations between the two neighboring countries in Northeast Asia have shown signs of improvement after Yoon Suk Yeol was elected President of South Korea in March 2022.

Relations warmed significantly after Seoul in March offered to compensate South Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor without requiring Japanese companies to contribute.