President Park Geun-hye spoke briefly with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the second time the two leaders have held such an encounter amid frayed relations between their countries.

The dialogue took place when Park and Abe attended a gala dinner Monday, along with other Pacific Rim leaders after the opening session of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Indonesia's resort island of Bali, an aide to Park said Tuesday.

The official declined to provide any specifics.

It was the second time the two leaders have held such an encounter. Last month, they held a similar meeting when they attended a summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Russia's second-largest city of Saint Petersburg.

Park has shunned a formal summit with Abe as relations between Seoul and Tokyo have remained strained due to Japan's repeated claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo and its unrepentant attitude toward its sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II. (Yonhap News)