Diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan have thawed rapidly since the Yoon Suk-yeol administration announced its unilateral plan to compensate Korean victims of Japanese forced labor programs, leading to the first bilateral summit in more than 11 years.

During a joint press conference after their meeting on Thursday, South Korean President Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made two significant announcements. First, Japan will lift the export restrictions that it had imposed on South Korea since 2019. Second, the two countries will normalize the General Security of Military Intelligence Act (GSOMIA), a military intelligence-sharing pact.