South Korean lawmakers have met with their Japanese counterparts in an effort to find solutions to their countries' diplomatic row over a South Korean court's recent rulings against Japanese firms implicated in wartime forced labor. 

Eleven South Korean members of the Korea-Japan Parliamentarians’ Union, including lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party and the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, convened with the group’s Japanese members in a Tokyo hotel on Friday. 

During the lunch meeting, DP lawmaker Kang Chang-il, who represents the South Korean side, explained his government is obliged to respect its courts’ decision given the country’s principle of separation of powers between the administration and the judiciary. 

While urging the Japanese government to do the same, Kang said Seoul-Tokyo relationship is also important to the South Korean government, and proposed the two countries put their heads together to resolve the issue.  

Fukushiro Nukaga, representing the Japanese side, called on the Seoul government to come up with a solution.