South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has vowed to resuscitate relations with Japan, but colonial-era animosity threatens to continue to fundamentally undermine U.S. efforts to get its Asian allies on the same page.

According to his foreign policy platform, Yoon will not only rebuild ties with Tokyo but will do so with “sweeping solutions to all pending problems” based on a “correct understanding of history” and Korean sovereignty. However, this is akin to Yoon having his cake and eating it too: History and sovereignty are precisely what poisoned relations over the last five years under Moon Jae-in’s Democratic government.