{"id":2195985,"date":"2022-05-05T17:24:38","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T08:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/pro\/?p=2195985"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:12:25","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:12:25","slug":"south-korea-japan-ties-will-improve-under-yoon-but-not-as-much-as-us-wants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/05\/south-korea-japan-ties-will-improve-under-yoon-but-not-as-much-as-us-wants\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea-Japan ties will improve under Yoon, but not as much as US wants"},"content":{"rendered":"
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.<\/span><\/p>\n According to his <\/span>foreign policy platform<\/span><\/a>, Yoon will not only rebuild ties with Tokyo but will do so with \u201csweeping solutions to all pending problems\u201d based on a \u201ccorrect understanding of history\u201d 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\u2019s Democratic government.<\/span><\/p>\n Yoon may well gloss over these issues, asserting in a <\/span>recent interview<\/span><\/a> that \u201cdragging the decades-old colonial rule back onto the table hurts the bilateral relationship between South Korea and Japan.\u201d He also sent a <\/span>pre-inauguration delegation<\/span><\/a> to meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in April and discussed these issues, demonstrating the two governments\u2019 desire to move forward.<\/span><\/p>\n For its part, Tokyo wants to <\/span>\u201cturn back the clock\u201d<\/span><\/a> to 2015, referencing the year of a <\/span>controversial deal<\/span><\/a> for a \u201cfinal and irrevocable resolution\u201d on the issue of Korean women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military. The Yoon camp has already <\/span>reaffirmed<\/span><\/a> the agreement but more strongly emphasizes returning to the South Korea and Japan\u2019s <\/span>1998 joint declaration<\/span><\/a>, which vaguely called for both peoples to \u201cdeepen their understanding of history\u201d \u2014 a sentiment much more palatable to the Korean audience.<\/span><\/p>\n Yet as Yoon\u2019s conservative predecessors <\/span>learned the hard way<\/span><\/a>, South Korean presidents ignore the public\u2019s grievances with Japan at their peril. And Yoon doesn\u2019t have much room to play with, considering that he only won March\u2019s presidential election by the <\/span>slimmest of margins<\/span><\/a> and the Democratic Party controls parliament until at least 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n While the president-elect has shown he\u2019s not afraid of <\/span>pushing through public opposition<\/span><\/a> to his plans, the U.S. can only hope for so much when it comes to reconciling its two Northeast Asian allies. Unless there\u2019s a tectonic shift in Seoul\u2019s position on Japan\u2019s imperial past and disputed territory \u2014 about as likely as Korea recognizing <\/span>Chinese claims to kimchi<\/span><\/a> \u2014 the U.S. will struggle to fully bring them together to cooperate on threats in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n