{"id":2198236,"date":"2022-08-15T18:47:59","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T09:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/pro\/?p=2198236"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:11:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:11:45","slug":"yoon-urges-south-korea-japan-to-move-on-but-history-keeps-bubbling-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/08\/yoon-urges-south-korea-japan-to-move-on-but-history-keeps-bubbling-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoon urges South Korea and Japan to move on. But history keeps bubbling up."},"content":{"rendered":"
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol pitched the need to improve relations with Korea\u2019s former colonial rulers on Monday, the holiday when the country celebrates its liberation from Japanese rule in 1945. But an imminent court ruling on World War II-era forced labor means his efforts may all be for naught.<\/span><\/p>\n In a speech to mark South Korea\u2019s Liberation Day, Yoon <\/span>stressed the future-oriented vision<\/span><\/a> he has for relations with a country with which it shares a poisonous history but overlapping security concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n Yoon contrasted \u201ctoday\u201d with \u201cthe past,\u201d asserting that while Koreans had to \u201cunshackle\u201d themselves from Imperial Japan, Tokyo is now Seoul\u2019s \u201cpartner\u201d since the two face \u201ccommon threats that challenge the freedom of global citizens.\u201d He then segued into discussing perhaps their biggest shared threat \u2014 North Korea\u2019s nuclear program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n North Korea\u2019s weapons are capable of striking both countries, and in the absence of a diplomatic solution or an <\/span>effective sanctions campaign<\/span><\/a>, its missile program is <\/span>only getting deadlier<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n All of this, especially Yoon\u2019s willingness to move on from the past, is music to Washington\u2019s ears. Relations between Seoul and Tokyo deteriorated during the previous Moon Jae-in administration, jeopardizing trilateral cooperation with the U.S.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In particular, friction over a South Korean <\/span>court ruling<\/span><\/a> to compensate forced laborers during World War II led to Japanese <\/span>economic retaliation<\/span><\/a>, and Seoul <\/span>almost withdrew<\/span><\/a> from an important intelligence-sharing agreement in response.<\/span><\/p>\n But while South Korea\u2019s leadership may have changed its tune on Japan, the forced labor issue hasn\u2019t gone anywhere. And that means relations with Japan, far from heading toward reconciliation, are set to drop to another new low.<\/span><\/p>\n