Shinzo Abe and Moon Jae-in holds talks in China – their first in 15 months amid dispute over colonial era forced labour

The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has asked President Moon Jae-in of South Korea to take steps to resolve the two countries’ bitter dispute.

The leaders met in China on Wednesday for their first bilateral talks in 15 months. Tensions between their countries are at their worst in decades, after South Korea’s supreme court ordered Japanese firms to compensate some South Koreans for forced labour during Japanese colonial rule. Japan says the issue was settled under a 1965 treaty.