Finance ministers of South Korea and Japan agreed Saturday to continue efforts to resume suspended free trade talks between the two countries, both sides said.

South Korean Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan and his Japanese counterpart, Koriki Jojima, met in Seoul to discuss matters of mutual concern, including the suspended FTA talks.

“We have reconfirmed the importance of continued efforts to resume South Korea-Japan Free Trade Agree talks,” the two sides said in a joint press release. “Each promised to push for appropriate macroeconomic measures and seek policy coordination.”

The FTA negotiations between Seoul and Tokyo have been suspended since November 2004, mainly because of Japan’s reluctance to lower tariffs on agricultural goods.

The finance ministers’ meeting, originally scheduled for late August, has been postponed due to Japan’s protest against South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s unprecedented trip to Dokdo, a set of South Korean islets in the East Sea, to which Japan also lays claims.

The next and sixth finance ministers’ meeting will be held in Japan early next year, it said. (Yonhap News)