By Lee Kyoung Mi and Lee Jihae

A Japanese daily on Nov. 18 said Korea and Japan should let each other save face to improve bilateral relations, which remain tense since a 2018 verdict from the Korean Supreme Court awarded damages to Korean victims of forced work by Japan.

The liberal newspaper Mainichi Shimbun said this in the editorial titled "Resuming political dialogue a step forward in thawing Japan-S. Korea ties."

The daily said Rep. Kim Jin-pyo, chairman of the Korea-Japan Parliamentarians' Union, and Park Jie-won, director of the National Intelligence Service, visited Japan in succession and held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. The secretary-general of the Japan-Korea Parliamentarians' Union also visited Korea last month.

"Relations between the two countries remain at their worst level since diplomatic ties were normalized in 1965. We want to positively appraise reconfirmation of the two sides' political will to achieve a breakthrough in the current situation," it said.

"In South Korea, the level of national earnings per person has risen to a level on par with that of Japan. Officials should be aware that sudden changes in the power balance are a remote cause of the souring of relations. There is a need to seek a breakthrough while allowing the other country to save face."

Mainichi mentioned the changes in international politics faced by Korea and Japan, such as the threat of a North Korean provocation in the wake of the U.S. presidential election and the continuation of the U.S.-China conflict.