The top diplomats of South Korea and Japan have agreed to continue bilateral cooperation to address North Korea issues.

According to Japan’s foreign ministry, Seoul’s foreign minister Cho Tae-yul and his Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa made the agreement in talks on Wednesday on the sidelines of a foreign ministerial meeting of the Group of 20(G20) nations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

The ministry said the two sides also agreed to closely cooperate on the issue of human rights violations by Pyongyang, including its abductions of Japanese nationals, and to continue close communication as next year marks the 60th anniversary of the normalization of Seoul-Tokyo ties.

It marks the first face-to-face meeting of the top diplomats since Cho took office on January 10. Cho held his first phone call with Kamikawa on January 23 and agreed to continue cooperation to enhance the improvement of relations between the two nations. 

Meanwhile, the ministry said Kamikawa expressed “strong regret” that South Korea authorized the transfer of a court deposit made by Japanese corporate defendant, Hitachi Zosen, to a South Korean plaintiff as compensation in a lawsuit over the issue of forced labor during Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Kamikawa reportedly told Cho that the payment caused an "unreasonable disadvantage" to the Japanese firm.