SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday called for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to find an optimal solution to the issue on South Korean victims who were forced into heavy labor by the Imperial Japan during World War II, according to the presidential Blue House.

Moon had phone talks with Suga, who took office last week, for 20 minutes from 11:00 a.m. local time on Thursday, exchanging opinions on ways to develop Seoul-Tokyo relations and situations on the Korean Peninsula.

The South Korean president told the Japanese premier that it is true that there are different positions between the two countries over the forced labor issue, but Moon expressed hope to jointly find an optimal solution that both governments and all parties involved can accept.

Moon asked Suga to speed up communication efforts to resolve pending issues between Seoul and Tokyo, including the forced labor issue, with a fresh attitude of mind. In response, Suga agreed to make dialogue efforts to resolve pending issues.

Trade dispute between South Korea and Japan started after the South Korean top court's ruling in 2018 that ordered some of Japanese companies to pay reparations to the South Korean victims who were duped or coerced into harsh labor without pay during WWII.

In an apparent protest against the ruling, Japan tightened control over its export to South Korea of three materials in July last year. The materials are vital to producing memory chips and display panels, the mainstay of South Korean export.

In the following month, the two sides removed each other from their respective whitelists of trusted trading partners that are given preferential export procedure.