South Korea and Japan are set to meet for the first time in nearly four decades to discuss the joint development of Block 7, a vast area of the seabed under the East China Sea south of Jeju Island. 

Seoul’s foreign ministry said Thursday that the joint committee established under a 1974 joint development zone(JDZ) agreement between the two countries will hold its sixth meeting Friday in Tokyo.

South Korea and Japan signed the JDZ agreement to pursue the joint exploration and development of Block 7 and adjacent waters, covering an area of some 80-thousand square kilometers thought to be rich in crude oil and natural gas. 

The joint committee was supposed to meet at least once a year, but the two countries suspended talks after the fifth meeting in 1985. 

The Friday talks will be led by Hwang Jun-shik, director general for international legal affairs with South Korea’s foreign ministry, and Akihiro Okochi, deputy director general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at Japan's foreign ministry.

A South Korean foreign ministry official said without elaborating further that the two sides will exchange views on the implementation of the JDZ agreement. 

The official added that the meeting will not automatically lead to joint development of the block and that it will be difficult to resolve all issues concerning the agreement.