{"id":2197628,"date":"2022-07-21T18:23:17","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T09:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/pro\/?p=2197628"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:12:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:12:08","slug":"south-korea-seeks-reset-with-japan-but-does-tokyo-want-one-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/07\/south-korea-seeks-reset-with-japan-but-does-tokyo-want-one-too\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea seeks reset with Japan. But does Tokyo want one too?"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Korea-Japan relations reached a new nadir under President Moon Jae-in, who left office earlier this year. The new Yoon Suk-yeol administration has promised a reset, and dispatched foreign minister Park Jin to Tokyo this week to help spearhead this effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are numerous obstacles in the way, but none bigger than colonial-era grievances. While the 1965 Basic Treaty between the two countries was meant to settle this \u201ccompletely and finally,\u201d the Korean left has both pushed and allowed individuals to challenge this finality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018, the ROK Supreme Court ruled that Japanese companies that forced Koreans to work for them during WWII should pay the victims and families directly (the 1965 reparations package was state-to-state level). The court ordered the assets of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries seized and will decide as soon as this August whether these funds will be liquidated and distributed to the surviving forced labor victims or their descendants.<\/span><\/p>\n

If that happens, the ROK-Japan relationship will sink into <\/span>unknown depths<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

ONE-SIDED AFFAIR<\/b><\/p>\n

This week, Park Jin became the first ROK foreign minister to meet their Japanese counterpart in a full meeting in nearly a half-decade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During his <\/span>talks<\/span><\/a> with Yoshimasa Hayashi on July 18, Park assured his counterpart that the South Korean side will find a way to avoid the seizure of Japanese assets. Both ministers <\/span>expressed their belief<\/span><\/a> that they should do their best to solve the forced labor issue as soon as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, Park Jin also said that the 2015 agreement on comfort women would be respected.\u00a0Later, a ROK official said Hayashi \u201c<\/span>listened well<\/span><\/a>\u201d to what Park said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, Park met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and delivered a message from President Yoon Suk-yeol promising to \u201cimprove relations\u201d between Japan and South Korea.<\/span><\/p>\n

The South Korean side wanted a Park-Kishida meeting. The Japanese were <\/span>less enthusiastic<\/span><\/a>: The morning of the meeting, a Japanese government spokesperson said it had yet to be decided whether Kishida would meet Park at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Diplomats of South Korea and Japan hold talks in Tokyo on July 18, 2022 | Image: Ministry of Foreign Affairs<\/p><\/div>\n

Indeed, the Yoon administration has been proactive when it comes to Japan, but the Japanese have been remarkably passive \u2014 or perhaps more accurately, remarkably cautious.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a few reasons for this. First, the Japanese side remembers all too well how and why the 2015 comfort women agreement collapsed. A major explanation, which Kishida (who was foreign minister at the time) must know, is that poor views of Japan among the South Korean public gave Moon and the South Korean left the political incentive to walk away from the deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tokyo must be incredulous about whether any deal it signs with Seoul will hold up to this kind of political scrutiny.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Japanese also see the political division inside South Korea. Right now, liberals and their Democratic Party have the majority in the National Assembly, and they will likely block any attempts from the Yoon administration to codify compromise with Japan. Seoul has not explained how it would secure such a breakthrough or how it plans to \u201creset\u201d bilateral relations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Further, inside Japan\u2019s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Kishida is seen as a liberal and his faction constitutes a minority. With Shinzo Abe gone, the more right-wing conservatives in the party \u2014 the sort that is less inclined to admit to any historical wrongdoing and feel South Korea is a lost cause \u2014 may find a larger platform and exert more influence on Japanese foreign policy. Kishida, in the minority, will have to work hard to keep his party together and behind him.<\/span><\/p>\n

REACHING FOR ANYTHING<\/b><\/p>\n

At any rate, ROK-Japan relations are clearly beginning to take the first steps toward partial recovery. Returning to Seoul, Park told reporters that he was optimistic about the future of the relationship and gently prodded the Japanese side to \u201crespond positively\u201d to South Korea\u2019s new charm offensive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One columnist in the <\/span>Nikkei Shimbun<\/span><\/i><\/a> laid out the plausible scenario for what happens next: \u201cThe conservative administration in Seoul takes relations with Japan seriously and will eventually suggest a way to solve the forced labor issue in ways which would be acceptable for the Japanese side. However, once this happens, the forced laborers, their lawyers and progressive opposition parties will loudly criticize it, calling Yoon\u2019s administration \u2018pro-Japanese.\u201d We can be almost certain that the situation will follow this course.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He might be right, and the way to the revival of Seoul-Tokyo relations is likely to be long and difficult. On condition of anonymity, a Japanese <\/span>foreign ministry official<\/span><\/a> told a local outlet that, \u201cPark has shown his willingness to solve the problems, but, in practice, it is doubtful whether he will be able to deliver any concrete ways to do so.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Edited by Arius Derr<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Domestic Politics<\/span><\/a>Inter-Korean & Foreign Relations<\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Korea-Japan relations reached a new nadir under President Moon Jae-in, who left office earlier this year. The new Yoon Suk-yeol administration has promised a reset, and dispatched foreign minister Park Jin to Tokyo this week to help spearhead this effort. There are numerous obstacles in the way, but none bigger than colonial-era grievances. While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3665,"featured_media":2197629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[27,28],"class_list":["post-2197628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-domestic-politics","tag-inter-korean-foreign-relations"],"yoast_head":"\nSouth Korea seeks reset with Japan. 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