{"id":2200666,"date":"2023-04-07T18:49:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T09:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/?p=2200666"},"modified":"2023-04-10T19:55:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T10:55:00","slug":"servant-of-japan-south-koreas-opposition-challenges-yoons-rapprochement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/04\/servant-of-japan-south-koreas-opposition-challenges-yoons-rapprochement\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Servant of Japan\u2019: South Korea\u2019s opposition challenges Yoon\u2019s rapprochement"},"content":{"rendered":"
As the U.S. rallies its regional allies against China and North Korea, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is working to improve relations with the country\u2019s former colonizer Japan. However, the South Korean opposition party is strongly protesting this move toward reconciliation, which could lead to obstacles in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n Yoon has already upset the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) by deciding that Seoul, rather than Tokyo, would <\/span>compensate<\/span><\/a> Korean victims of forced labor during the colonial era. In response to Yoon\u2019s decision, the DP <\/span>labeled<\/span><\/a> it as humiliating, and one former victim <\/span>said<\/span><\/a>, \u201cI won’t accept [South Korean money] even if I starve to death.<\/span><\/p>\n Further controversy arose when <\/span>reports<\/span><\/a> emerged from Japanese media suggesting that Tokyo had raised other contentious issues during Yoon\u2019s recent <\/span>summit<\/span><\/a> with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, such as the disputed Dokdo islets and South Korea\u2019s ban on seafood imports from Fukushima.<\/span><\/p>\n The Yoon administration <\/span>maintains<\/span><\/a> that the Japanese media reports were \u201ccompletely groundless or distorted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Nevertheless, the DP is loudly voicing its dissatisfaction about Yoon\u2019s policy toward Japan, going so far as to call him a \u201c<\/span>servant of Japan<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n