South Korea's new President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed to deepen a relationship prized by Washington and closely watched by China and North Korea, as the pair met for their first summit.

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba held their first bilateral summit Tuesday, on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Toronto.

President Lee Jae-myung is attending the Group of Seven summit in Canada as the leader of an invited country, not as an "observer" as claimed in social media posts. The South Korean government announced that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney extended the invitation on June 7,