SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Top U.S. diplomat for East Asia met in Seoul with senior South Korean officials Wednesday, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell, who arrived here Tuesday, met with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha earlier in the morning, the Seoul ministry said in a statement.
During the meeting, Kang and Stilwell exchanged opinions about various issues of mutual concern, including ways for the reciprocal development of the South Korea-U.S. relations, the regional cooperation, and the South Korea-Japan ties.
Kang explained to the U.S. diplomat about Seoul's efforts to resolve the South Korea-Japan issues through dialogue, while Stilwell called it "encouraging."
The meeting came ahead of the scheduled expiration on Nov. 23 of the military intelligence-sharing pact between South Korea and Japan called the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).
South Korea decided in August to scrap the military accord in response to Japan's export curbs. The GSOMIA was signed by Seoul and Tokyo in November 2016 to share military intelligence on nuclear and missile programs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
In July, Japan tightened control over its export to South Korea of three materials vital to manufacture memory chips and display panels.
Japan dropped South Korea in August off its whitelist of trusted trading partners that are given preferential export procedure. In response, Seoul took Tokyo off its whitelist of trusted export partners.
Japan's export restrictions came in an apparent protest against the South Korean top court's rulings that ordered some of Japanese companies to pay reparation to the South Korean victims who were forced into hard labor without pay during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
Meanwhile, the U.S. diplomat had meetings with Cho Sei-young, the first vice foreign minister of South Korea, and Deputy Defense Minister Chung Suk-hwan.
Stilwell was reportedly scheduled to meet with senior officials from the presidential Blue House of South Korea.
