A delegation dispatched by South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday met Japan’s foreign minister in Tokyo, hoping to lay the groundwork for warmer ties after years of tensions.
Japan and South Korea are both democracies, market economies and US allies, but their relationship has been strained at times over historical disputes related to Tokyo’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
In the past few years, the neighbors have been locked in a bitter trade and diplomatic row related to these issues, including compensation for World War II sex slaves.
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, North Korean missile tests and China’s growing regional military capacity, as well as visits by US President Joe Biden to Seoul and Tokyo this year, appear to have put cooperation back on the agenda.
Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki said ties with South Korea were “of paramount importance” as North Korea’s “nuclear and missile development becomes more and more active.”
“As the international community faces a historic crossroads, we believe fostering healthy Japan-South Korean relationships is essential to realizing a rule-based international order,” he said.
The seven-member delegation, which arrived on Sunday and is expected to leave on Thursday, includes policy experts including a former diplomat and professor, local media reported.
It is headed by South Korean National Assembly Deputy Speaker Chung Jin-suk from the conservative People Power Party, whose leader Yoon won last month’s presidential election, promising a more hawkish policy on the nuclear-armed North.
“The two countries agreed that their cooperative relationship should be closely maintained and strengthened,” Chung told reporters after meeting Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi and his deputy.
However, Chung said that no specific proposals had so far been presented.
There have been reports that the team is this week to meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, but nothing has been confirmed.
The delegation is believed to be carrying a letter to Kishida from Yoon, who takes office on May 10.
“We need to further Japan-South Korea relationships based on the friendship we have built since the normalization of our diplomatic ties in 1965, and we have high hopes for the leadership of the next South Korean president,” Isozaki said.
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