TOKYO/SEOUL, May 7 (Portal) – Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Seoul on Sunday to meet South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, where he faced a skeptical public as leaders warned about the nuclear Threat of North Korea and China’s increasing assertiveness seek deeper relations.
Kishida’s bilateral visit, the first by a Japanese head of state to Seoul in 12 years, echoes the trip Yoon made to Tokyo in March, where they sought to close a chapter on the historic disputes that have plagued Japan-South Korea relations dominate for years.
Shortly before his departure, Kishida told reporters he hoped to have an “open discussion based on a relationship of trust” with Yoon without going into specific issues.
Yoon is criticized at home for giving more than he received in his efforts to improve relations with Japan, including by suggesting that South Korean companies – not Japanese companies as ordered by a court – should be victims of war labor during Japan’s 1910- 1945 compensate colonial occupation.
South Korean officials hope Kishida will make some sort of gesture in return, offering political support, though few observers expect another formal apology for historic wrongs. Yoon himself has signaled that he doesn’t think it’s necessary.
Instead, the focus of the summit will likely be on security cooperation in the face of North Korea’s nuclear threat, said Shin-wha Lee, a professor of international relations at Korea University in Seoul.
“Under the ‘Washington Declaration’ outlining plans to strengthen enhanced deterrence, Korea will explore ways to increase cooperation with Japan,” she added.
“We have many ways to work together to counter the threat posed by North Korea” and secure a free and open Indo-Pacific, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have simmered as China becomes more assertive in its territorial claims over Taiwan and in the South China Sea, while the US bolsters alliances in the Asia-Pacific region.
But the historical differences between South Korea and Japan also threaten to cast a shadow over the blossoming relations between the two leaders.
The majority of South Koreans believe Japan did not adequately apologize for the atrocities committed during the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945, Lee said. “They think Prime Minister Kishida should show sincerity during his visit to South Korea, for example by mentioning historical issues and apologizing,” she added.
On the other hand, Japan is taking it slow, said Daniel Russel, former US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific.
“Kishida is careful not to move faster than his domestic politics will allow,” he added, citing the previous Korean government’s unilateral cancellation of an agreement on “comfort women” as a source of Japan’s caution.
In 2015, South Korea and Japan reached an agreement under which Tokyo issued an official apology to “comfort women” who say they were enslaved in wartime brothels and 1 billion yen ($9.23 million) for a fund to made available to help the victims.
But then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in decided to liquidate the fund in 2018, effectively terminating the deal as he felt it was insufficient to address victims’ concerns.
Nevertheless, South Korea is an “important neighbor with whom we have to work together on various global issues,” said the Japanese foreign ministry.
Kishida has invited Yoon to the Group of Seven summit later this month in Japan and will hold trilateral talks with the US on the sidelines.
Kishida will push for trilateral talks with China as early as this year, Kyodo reported on Friday, citing several unnamed diplomatic sources.
Reporting by Seoyun Kang, Josh Smith and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul, Sakura Murakami in Tokyo and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan
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