President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have agreed to work towards a peaceful resolution of North Korea’s nuclear threat.

The two leaders held their first ever bilateral summit Friday on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

They reached consensus that North Korea’s nuclear and missile program is an urgent and grave threat and a complete scrapping of the program should be brought about in a peaceful manner.

During the meeting, Abe also urged Moon to implement a 2015 agreement on the issue of Japan's recruitment of Korean women into wartime sexual slavery, calling it a foundation of the bilateral relations.

In response, Moon said a majority of South Koreans do not accept the deal, but added the issue should not be a stumbling block to the relations between the two countries.

The deal was brokered by Moon's impeached predecessor, Park Geun-hye, and Moon has come under strong pressure to scrap or revise the deal by groups who say it does not go far enough to admit wrongdoing or compensate the victims.
 
At the beginning of the meeting, Abe broke the ice by saying hello to Moon in Korean, and said he hopes to build a new, future-oriented, Japan-South Korea relationship together.

In response, Moon suggested they meet often for in-depth talks.  

Seoul’s presidential office said Abe expressed his understanding South Korea would play a leading role in the restoration of the inter-Korean relations.

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