South Korea and Japan will hold director-level talks on Monday to discuss major pending issues amid their strained relations over a court ruling on Japan's wartime forced labor. 

Kim Yong-kil, chief of the Foreign Ministry's Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau, will meet with his Japanese counterpart Kenji Kanasugi on Monday afternoon at the ministry building in Seoul.

It will be the first meeting between officials from the two nations since South Korea's Supreme Court recently ruled that two Japanese firms should compensate Korean victims forced to work without pay at their factories during World War Two.

The meeting also comes amid Japan’s claims that a South Korean warship last week directed its fire-control radar at Japan's maritime patrol aircraft. Seoul dismissed the claim, saying Tokyo misunderstood its naval operation to help a North Korean ship drifting near a sea border.

Meanwhile, Kanasugi, who doubles as Tokyo's top nuclear envoy, will also hold talks with South Korea's top nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon on Monday morning to discuss North Korea-related issues and inter-Korean relations.