Main opposition Democratic Party(DP) leader Lee Jae-myung slammed President Yoon Suk Yeol for ignoring the public's demands to look after national interests while conducting diplomacy with Japan.

At a Supreme Council meeting on Monday, Lee commented on Yoon's summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Seoul the previous day, saying that the administration was the only side that "filled the empty glass" of diplomacy through concessions.

The opposition chief pointed out that there was no reference to a reconsideration of Seoul's plan to compensate Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor without participation by liable Japanese firms, or mentioning of Tokyo's renewed claim over the Dokdo islets.

Lee also expressed concern over the agreement to allow South Korean experts to visit Fukushima to inspect preparations for the planned release of water from the crippled nuclear plant into the ocean, saying that it may be abused by Tokyo to legitimize the plan. 

Ruling People Power Party(PPP) leader Kim Gi-hyeon, for his part, wrote on social media that Seoul-Tokyo relations are about to come out of a long tunnel of darkness towards normalization, stressing that economic and security cooperation with Tokyo are a necessity, not a choice.