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SEOUL, May 8 (AP) – South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called on officials on Monday to draw up concrete steps to speed up security and economic cooperation with Japan after a weekend summit in Seoul with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
At Sunday’s meeting, Kishida expressed sympathy for South Koreans forced into industrial slavery during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule on the Korean peninsula, as leaders vowed to overcome historical grievances and face North Korea’s nuclear threat and other challenges. Strengthen cooperation.
The summit, the second between the leaders of the two countries in less than two months, drew mixed reactions in South Korea. Critics, including liberal opponents of Yoon, who controls a majority in the National Assembly, said Kishida’s comments offered no meaningful apology and accused Yoon of pushing to repair bilateral ties while freeing Japan from past aggression.
Others see the summit as a sign that two key U.S. allies are finally making progress after years of wrangling to strengthen their three-way partnership with Washington.
Yoon, Kishida and President Joe Biden are expected to hold a trilateral meeting later this month on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Hiroshima to discuss geopolitical uncertainty caused by North Korea and Russia’s incursions into Ukraine and China’s assertive foreign policy. Although South Korea is not a G-7 country, Yoon was invited as one of eight outreach countries.
In a meeting with his key ministries on Monday, Yin directed them to develop follow-up measures to develop bilateral security, economic and technological cooperation, and to promote cultural and youth exchanges between the two countries, which were discussed during his talks with Kishida. Yoon’s office did not elaborate.
Kishida told reporters before leaving Seoul that he hoped to further strengthen his personal relationship with Yoon “to usher in a new era together.”
Kishida, who met separately with groups of South Korean lawmakers and business leaders earlier Monday, stressed the need to promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries, which he said would “help further promote our mutual understanding and provide a basis for exchanges between the two countries.” Breadth and thickness. Our relationship.”
Kishida’s visit to Seoul echoed Yoon’s visit to Tokyo in mid-March. This is the first exchange of visits between leaders of the two countries in 12 years.
The back-to-back summits were largely aimed at resolving a bitter dispute over a South Korean court ruling in 2018 ordering two Japanese companies to compensate some of their former South Korean employees for forced labor before the end of World War II. The rulings have angered Japan, which insists all compensation issues have been resolved through a 1965 treaty to normalize relations.
The dispute led the two countries to downgrade each other’s trade status, and Seoul’s previous liberal government threatened to sign a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact. Their strained relationship has complicated U.S. efforts to forge stronger regional alliances that can better deal with challenges posed by North Korea and China.
The thaw in bilateral ties came after Yoon’s conservative government announced in March a domestically controversial plan to use local company funds to compensate victims of forced labor without asking for donations from Japan. Yoon traveled to Tokyo later that month to meet with Kishida, and the two agreed to resume leadership visits and other talks. Their governments have since taken steps to roll back economic retaliation measures.
Kishida’s trip to Seoul drew intense public attention in South Korea, many of which remain resentful of Japan’s colonial occupation.
In a news conference after Sunday’s summit, Kishida avoided another outright apology for the colonial rule but expressed sympathy for South Korea’s victims, in an apparent attempt to maintain the momentum for improved relations.
“Personally, I have a great pain in my heart when I think of the extreme hardship and grief that so many people endured under dire circumstances,” he said.
Kishida also revealed that he and Yoon will pay their respects at the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Memorial in Hiroshima during the G7 meeting. He addressed South Korea’s concerns over food safety following the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan, saying Tokyo would allow South Korean experts to visit and inspect the planned discharge of treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Seoul’s foreign ministry said the South Korean visiting team will be made up of experts from relevant government agencies and organizations and will hold talks with Japanese officials soon to finalize their planned visit for May 23-24.
Yin has faced criticism at home for preemptively making concessions to Tokyo without matching them in return, with opposition politicians and some newspapers calling the summit a disappointment.
“We cannot move toward the future by selling out the past,” said Jae-myung Lee, the leader of the Democratic Party, which narrowly lost to Yoon in last year’s presidential race. “Normalization of South Korea-Japan relations is necessary, and I am in favor, but not at the expense of our national interests, national dignity, history and justice.”
The conservative Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest-circulation newspaper, acknowledged that Kishida’s remarks were not enough to assuage South Korea’s grievances with history, but also said the summit reflected an “urgent” need for cooperation between the two countries.
“After recent events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s threat to its neighbor’s maritime Similar challenges are associated with a slowing economy and declining population,” the paper said.
“Now is not the time to dwell on the past.” (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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