South Korea and Japan have resumed a high-level economic dialogue after an eight-year hiatus.

The two nations held the dialogue in Seoul on Thursday, led by Kang Jae-kwon, South Korea's deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, and Keiichi Ono, Japan’s senior deputy foreign minister.

According to Seoul’s foreign ministry, the two sides reviewed bilateral economic cooperation and exchanged opinions on various issues including economic security policy as well as regional and multilateral cooperation.

The ministry said the two sides agreed to work together to fully realize the potential of joint economic efforts amid a recovery of bilateral trade and investment to pre-pandemic levels.

The two sides discussed and explained their respective policies on economic security as well as the enhancement of bilateral and multilateral cooperation in an effort to secure new markets and stabilize and diversify supply chains.

Launched in 1999, the high-level economic dialogue was suspended after the 14th meeting in January 2016 over the erection in Busan of a girl's statue symbolizing Korean victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery.