 |
| ▲ This Kyodo News photo, filed Oct. 23, 2023, shows a Japanese Air Self-Defense Force aircraft parked at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo on Oct. 21, after returning from Israel with Japanese nationals, 18 South Koreans and one foreign family member in an evacuation from the war-torn region. (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) S Koreans-Japan-Israel
(LEAD) 15 S. Koreans return from Israel aboard Japanese plane
(ATTN: UPDATES story as plane landed)
By Kim Seung-yeon
SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Yonhap) -- A Japanese aircraft carrying a group of South Korean nationals, along with its own people, returned from Israel on Friday, Seoul's foreign ministry said, the second such flight Japan has offered after South Korea brought Japanese citizens home on its plane last month.
The Air Self-Defense Force aircraft carrying 15 South Koreans and one foreign national family member related to a Korean national landed at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, at 6:45 p.m., the foreign ministry said.
The plane had departed from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on Thursday (local time).
This is the second flight Tokyo has provided to aid Seoul in the evacuation of Koreans from the war-torn region.
Eighteen South Koreans and a foreign family member returned aboard a Japanese aircraft on Oct. 21 as Japan offered to share some 20 seats with South Koreans.
The proposal was seen as returning the favor to Seoul after a South Korean military aircraft brought back 51 Japanese people, along with 163 South Koreans, from Israel on Oct. 14.
A total of 420 South Korean citizens remain in Israel, according to the ministry.
The mutual cooperation between the two neighboring countries comes amid a significant warming of bilateral relations that had been badly frayed by a dispute over compensating Korean victims of forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
In March, South Korea said it will not seek compensation from Japanese companies but make up for the victims' suffering on its own.
(END)
(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved
