The government is seeking to resume high-level defense policy discussions with Japan that were suspended after a Japanese patrol plane made a threateningly low flight over a South Korean navy vessel in the East Sea in 2018. 

A defense ministry official told Yonhap News Agency on Monday that Seoul will push for bilateral talks on restoring the consultative body and overcoming obstacles on the path toward the normalization of relations.

The move reflects the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's resolve to improve ties with Japan and to normalize Seoul's defense and military consultative frameworks with other countries.

Defense exchanges between the two sides hit an impasse as tensions escalated following rulings by South Korea’s top court ordering Japanese firms to compensate wartime forced labor victims, to which Tokyo responded with retaliatory export curbs.

The situation worsened after the maritime incident on December 20, 2018, with Japan claiming that a South Korean warship locked its fire-control radar on the Japanese aircraft while rescuing a stranded North Korean ship.

Dismissing the claim, Seoul called on Tokyo to apologize for the Japanese maritime patrol aircraft making such a low flight.