Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon yesterday agreed that they must work to ease the feud between the two neighbors that has spilled over into trade and security after their highest-level meeting in more than a year.
Both sides issued statements expressing a desire to repair ties after an about 20-minute meeting between the two leaders.
Lee delivered a letter to Abe from South Korean President Moon Jae-in that, according to Yonhap news agency, described Japan as a valuable partner in securing a lasting peace with North Korea and urged efforts to resolve their disputes.
“It’s important that relations must not be left in their current state,” Abe told Lee, describing them as “very severe,” according to a statement from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Lee urged Abe to continue communications and exchanges, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said separately.
The meeting is the most positive signal since South Korean courts last year issued a series of rulings backing the claims of people forced to work for Japanese companies during the country’s occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Japan has argued that all compensation claims were settled by a 1965 treaty that established ties between the two countries.
Moon has said the US-brokered agreement did not take into account the emotional suffering of the victims of Japan’s occupation.
The meeting helped set communications back to a more normal channel, but far more action was needed, said Kim Tai-ki, an economics professor at Dankook University near Seoul.
“With the key issue being trust, it will take much longer than top-level photo opportunities for it to actually rebuild,” he said.
Abe last met Moon in September last year and passed up a chance to meet him for formal talks during G20 events in June in Osaka, Japan. They are both expected to attend an ASEAN summit in Bangkok at the start of next month, which could afford them a chance for direct talks.
Economic worries in Japan and South Korea have mounted as they have both been in the fallout from a trade dispute between their major partners, the US and China.
Consumer spending in Japan is set to cool after Abe hiked the sales tax on Oct. 1 from 8 to 10 percent, while South Korea’s economy is on track for the smallest expansion since the global financial crisis as trade uncertainties weighed on investment.
Tensions have rapidly escalated, with Japan striking South Korea from a list of trusted export destinations and imposing restrictions on the sale of specialized materials essential to the country’s semiconductor and display manufacturing industries. South Korea responded by announcing its withdrawal from an intelligence-sharing pact, as its citizens boycotted Japanese goods and travel.
After largely sitting on the sidelines as tensions re-emerged, the administration of US President Donald Trump has over the past few months pushed the two sides to try to work out their differences. The US has been particularly critical of South Korea’s exit from the intelligence pact, as it is relying on cooperation between its two closest Asian allies to help counter China and North Korea.
As the meeting started in Tokyo, South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha sent mixed signals by offering support for the discussions and cautioning Japan that it needs to withdraw its export curbs for ties to improve.
The pretext for Lee’s visit was his attendance at Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s enthronement ceremony on Tuesday.
Each country is the other’s third-largest trading partner and neither can afford a damaging economic fight as global growth cools.
South Korean exports are poised for an 11th monthly decline and semiconductor sales, which account for the largest share of exports, fell 29 percent in the first 20 days of this month, Korea Customs Service data showed.
The number of South Koreans visiting Japan last month dropped by about 58 percent from a year earlier, data showed.
“The current dismal situation does not benefit either country,” said Shin Kak-Soo, South Korea’s ambassador to Japan from 2011 to 2013.
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