Japan and South Korea have agreed to resume a currency swap deal between the two countries, in another sign that bilateral relations are warming.

They reached the agreement on Thursday in a meeting of finance ministers and senior officials from the two countries. It was the first time in seven years that such a dialogue took place.

Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki Shunichi and his South Korean counterpart, Choo Kyung-ho, attended the meeting in Tokyo.

At the beginning of the talks, Suzuki said it is important to cooperate and be agile in policy actions to support regional economic growth and maintain financial stability.

In response, Choo said the resumption of the dialogue shows that the normalization of intergovernmental relations is expanding to economic policies and financial cooperation.

In the meeting that lasted almost two hours, both sides agreed on the resumption of the bilateral swap agreement, which allows them to exchange foreign currencies in an emergency resulting from turmoil in the financial markets or other contingencies.

In 2006, the two countries agreed on a swap deal that allowed Japan to provide up to 10 billion dollars to South Korea, and the South to provide up to 5 billion dollars to Japan. That agreement expired in February 2015 amid soured bilateral relations.

The renewed deal agreed on Thursday will establish a mechanism for providing up to 10 billion dollars to each other.

The two sides also agreed to cooperate in strengthening supply chains of clean energy products and enhance measures to address illicit activities by North Korea for accessing funds.

Tokyo and Seoul held a finance ministerial dialogue regularly until August 2016. But it has been suspended since then as bilateral relations cooled.

The two countries plan to hold the meeting again next year in South Korea.

Choo told South Korean media after Thursday's meeting that the significance of the agreement on the swap deal resumption lies in the normalization and restoration of the bilateral economic cooperation, rather than aimed at immediately responding to a decline in South Korean foreign exchange reserves or addressing market anxieties.

He added the resumption will symbolize the enhancement of bilateral cooperation.

South Korean Presidential office spokesperson Lee Do-woon told reporters that he welcomes the resumption of the deal, saying it is meaningful progress that shows bilateral relations, which have quickly recovered in security and industry, have also been restored in the financial sector.

Lee said the agreement signifies the extension of the safety net of foreign exchange liquidity to South Korea by building a framework of cooperation in the foreign exchange and financial sector with countries that share universal values such as Japan and the United States.