In a landmark summit, the leaders of Japan and South Korea signaled that they would not let relations spin out of control even as they made little progress in resolving disputes that have plunged relations to new depths.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that cooperation was crucial in the face of regional security threats as the two began their 45-minute meeting on the sidelines of a trilateral summit hosted by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) in Chengdu, China.
Abe agreed, and said he also hoped to improve the relationship.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“In the current difficult security situation in East Asia, relations between Japan and South Korea are extremely important. South Korea is an important neighbor,” Abe told reporters after the meeting.
Disputes rooted in disagreement over whether Japan has shown sufficient contrition for its history have hurt trade and hindered cooperation between the two US allies on dealing with North Korea.
The leaders’ meeting came after Pyongyang signaled it might fire a long-range missile as nuclear talks with US President Donald Trump’s administration stall ahead of a year-end deadline for progress set by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
No breakthroughs were made and the two aired grievances, but Abe and Moon indicated they would not let their relations spin out of control.
Their simmering feud has raised concerns about whether their fight would hurt global supply chains, and if they could cooperate with Washington as it seeks to put a check on China’s military expansion in the region and curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
Japan and South Korea “are geographically, historically and culturally the closest neighbors, as well as the most important, mutually beneficial partners in terms of human exchanges,” Moon told Abe.
“Our relationship is one that cannot be made distant, even if there is temporarily an uncomfortable issue,” he said.
Moon urged Japan to reverse the tighter trade controls it had placed on South Korea, his spokeswoman Ko Min-jung said after the meeting.
Abe said trade officials would discuss the issue.
For his part, Abe called on Seoul to resolve a disagreement over South Korean court rulings holding Japanese companies liable for cases of forced labor during the 1910-1945 colonization.
The talks had been seen as a positive step that could make it easier for the two nations to bridge differences on simmering disputes that include Japan’s export curbs on goods vital to South Korea’s massive technology sector, part of which was eased last week.
The standoff has damaged trade and tourism ties, with the number of South Koreans visiting Japan last month falling by almost two-thirds on the previous year, while Japan’s beer exports to its neighbor collapsed to virtually zero in October.
However, under pressure from the US, South Korea last month suspended its plan to withdraw from a military information-sharing pact with Japan. Since then, there have been hints of a potential thaw in ties.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
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