South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has stressed that his latest summit with the Japanese prime minister was fruitful, and expressed his intention to work further to improve bilateral ties.

Yoon was speaking at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday about his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio in Seoul on Sunday.

Yoon referred to Kishida's remarks at a joint news conference about the wartime labor issue pending between the two countries. Kishida said his heart aches when he thinks about the many people who endured suffering and sadness in a harsh environment during Japanese colonial rule.

Yoon said if one does not neglect the history of the dark past and approaches it sincerely, South Korea and Japan can overcome the difficulties they are facing.

Both leaders have agreed on the dispatch of South Korean experts to the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Some South Koreans are voicing concern, as Japan has a plan for the plant to release treated and diluted water into the ocean. The leaders also agreed to jointly visit a monument dedicated to South Korean victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in the city later this month.

Yoon said what was unimaginable until even recently is now happening between the two countries. He said if the two nations, which share the value of free democracy, cooperate and build mutual trust, they will be able to develop a new future even better than the best of the past.