TOKYO/SEOUL — Japan’s Prime Minister (PM) Fumio Kishida arrived in Seoul on Sunday to meet South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, facing a skeptical public there as the leaders seek deeper ties amid nuclear threats from North Korea and China’s increasing assertiveness.

Mr. Kishida’s bilateral visit, the first by a Japanese leader to Seoul in 12 years, returns the trip Mr. Yoon made to Tokyo in March, where they sought to close a chapter on the historical disputes that have dominated Japan-South Korea relations for years.

Before departing, Mr. Kishida told reporters he hoped to have “an open discussion based on a relationship of trust” with Mr. Yoon, without elaborating on specific issues.

Mr. Yoon is facing criticism at home that he has given more than he’s received in his efforts to improve relations with Japan, including by proposing that South Korean businesses — not Japanese companies as ordered by a court — compensate victims of wartime labor during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial occupation.

South Korean officials are hopeful that Mr. Kishida will make some kind of gesture in return and offer some political support, although few observers expect any further formal apology for historical wrongs. Mr. Yoon himself has signaled he doesn’t believe that is necessary.

The focus of the summit instead will likely revolve around security cooperation in the face of North Korea’s nuclear threats, said Shin-wha Lee, a professor of international relations at Seoul-based Korea University.

“Within the framework of the ‘Washington Declaration,’ which outlines plans to strengthen extended deterrence, Korea will explore ways to enhance the collaborative efforts with Japan,” she added.

“We have a lot of opportunities to cooperate when it comes to addressing the threat of North Korea” and securing a free and open Indo-Pacific, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

Tensions have simmered between Washington and Beijing as China becomes more assertive in its territorial claims over Taiwan and in the South China Sea, while the US shores up alliances across the Asia-Pacific.

But the historical differences between South Korea and Japan also threaten to cast a shadow over the blossoming ties between its two leaders.

The majority of South Koreans believe Japan hasn’t apologized sufficiently for atrocities during Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of Korea, Ms. Lee said. “They think that Prime Minister Kishida should show sincerity during his visit to South Korea, such as mentioning historical issues and expressing apologies,” she added.

On the other hand, Japan is taking it slow, said Daniel Russel, former US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific.

“Kishida is being careful not to go faster than his domestic politics permit,” he added, pointing to the unilateral abrogation by the previous Korean government of a settlement on ‘comfort women’ as a source of Japan’s wariness.

In 2015, South Korea and Japan reached a settlement under which Tokyo issued an official apology to “comfort women” who say they were enslaved in wartime brothels and provided 1 billion yen ($9.23 million) to a fund to help the victims. 

But then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in decided to dissolve the fund in 2018, effectively scrapping the agreement as he said it did not do enough to consider victims’ concerns.

Still, South Korea is an “important neighbor that we must cooperate with on various global issues,” Japan’s foreign ministry has said.

Mr. Kishida has invited Mr. Yoon to the Group of Seven summit set for later this month in Japan and will hold trilateral talks with the US on the sidelines.

Mr. Kishida will also urge for trilateral talks with China as early as this year, Kyodo reported on Friday, citing multiple unnamed diplomatic sources. — Reuters

A GUNMAN shot and killed eight people and wounded at least seven others at a busy mall north of Dallas on Saturday, police said.

The gunman, whom authorities said they think acted alone and whose motive was not yet known, was killed by a police officer after he began firing outside of the Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, Texas, the city’s police chief Brian Harvey said at a press conference.

Allen fire department chief Jon Boyd told the same press conference that his department took at least nine victims with gunshot wounds to area hospitals.

Two of those people died at the hospital, Boyd said at a second press conference Saturday night. Three of the victims were in critical condition and four others were stable.

Medical City Healthcare, which runs 16 hospitals in the area, said in a statement that its trauma centers were treating eight of the wounded victims, who ranged in age from 5 to 61.

Collin County Judge Chris Hill, the top elected official in the county where Allen sits, praised police and other first responders at a press conference, but expressed deep anger with “those that would do evil in our community, in our backyard.”

Separately, police in the nearby city of Frisco, Texas, said they had evacuated the Stonebriar mall late Saturday after receiving reports of shots fired there. It was not yet clear if a shooting had actually taken place.

TV aerial images showed hundreds of people calmly walking out of the mall, located about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Dallas, after the violence unfolded, many with their hands up as scores of police stood guard.

One unidentified eyewitness told local ABC affiliate WFAA TV that the gunman was “walking down the sidewalk just … shooting his gun outside,” and that “he was just shooting his gun everywhere for the most part.”

Blood could be seen on the sidewalks outside the mall and white sheets covering what appeared to be bodies.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, calling the shooting an “unspeakable tragedy,” said in a statement that the state was prepared to offer any assistance local authorities may need.

Allen, Texas, is a community of about 100,000 people.

Mass shootings have become commonplace in the United States, with at least 198 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since at least 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as any in which four or more people are wounded or killed, not including the shooter. — Reuters