South Korea's Moon calls for Japan talks, separation of historical disputes from future ties
South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday called for the decoupling of disputes over Japan's wartime past from bilateral cooperation for future prosperity and peace, saying the past should not hold the two countries back.
His reconciliatory gesture, made in a speech marking the country's 1919 pro-independence uprising against Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule, comes as the new US administration puts pressure on Seoul and Tokyo to improve ties to cope with a rising China and nuclear-armed North Korea.
"Korea and Japan have become very important neighbours to each other in all areas of the economy, culture and people-to-people exchanges," Moon said.
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The two countries have benefited from each other's development over the last several decades, and this will continue. But mixing up issues stemming from the past with those affecting future development is an obstacle the two countries need to overcome, he added.
"This has impeded forward-looking development ... we must not let the past hold us back. We have to concentrate more energy on future-oriented development while resolving issues of the past separately," he said.
"The Korean government is always ready to sit down and have talks with the Japanese government. I am confident that if we put our heads together in the spirit of trying to understand each other's perspectives, we will also be able to wisely resolve issues of the past."
Moon expressed hope that the Tokyo Olympics would provide an opportunity for various diplomatic meetings - between South Korea and Japan, between the two Koreas, between North Korea and Japan, as well as between North Korea and the United States.
He also pledged to cooperate with Japan in ensuring the Games are successful.
South Korea's ties with Japan hit rock bottom in mid-2019 when Tokyo placed restrictions on exports of key materials used to produce semiconductors and display panels, both important hard currency earners for South Korea, and removed South Korea from its list of trusted trade partners.
Protesters hold up banners during a rally to mark the March 1 Independence Movement Day against Japanese colonial rule, in front of a statue symbolising a wartime sex slave near Japanese Embassy in Seoul. Photo: AP
The move followed a Seoul court decision that ordered Japanese firms to compensate Korean victims of wartime forced labour, and other court findings that paved the way for the plaintiffs to seize and liquidate the companies' assets for compensation payments.
In January, a South Korean district court ruled that the Japanese government must pay 100 million won (US$89,115) each for 12 former "comfort women" who were forced to work at Japanese military brothels.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga immediately rejected the ruling as "utterly unacceptable", repeating Tokyo's long-standing stance that the issue was resolved through a 1965 accord that settled properties and claims related to Japan's colonial past.
"A series of actions and retaliatory countermeasures by both governments involving trade, security, and history-related controversies in 2018 and 2019 caused bilateral relations to plummet, eroding US-South Korea-Japan policy coordination," the US Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in a recent report.
"The Biden Administration has pledged to rejuvenate US alliances and may be considering how to facilitate trust between the two US allies to foster more effective trilateral cooperation," it said.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, third right, and his wife Kim Jung-sook, second right, attend at a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule. Photo: AP
Amid US pressure on both allies to mend fences, Moon - who is in his final year in office - has unsuccessfully reached out to Tokyo.
In his New Year speech in January, Moon said his government will "continue making efforts to develop future-oriented ties with Japan".
Days later, Moon called Tokyo a "partner for cooperation for peace and stability in the region and the world", adding that while difficulties may occur at times, "they should not hamper the development of overall bilateral ties".
Asked to comment on the compensation issues, Moon said: "I don't think the way the ruling is being implemented - such as liquidation based on compulsory execution - is a desirable approach between South Korea and Japan."
However, Tokyo's chilly attitude towards Seoul remains unchanged, with Suga insisting in a parliamentary speech in January that Seoul should come up with concrete actions concerning the court rulings.
"In order to return to healthy [bilateral] relations, I will strongly urge South Korea to come up with proper measures," he said.
Lee won-deog, an international relations professor at Kookmin University, said Moon's speech on Monday represented a softening of his stance, compared with his 2019 New Year's press conference in which he insisted that the government "cannot interfere in judicial decisions".
"His remarks appear to fall short of Japan's expectations as Japan wants South Korea to promise to resolve the compensation issue with its own means," Lee told This Week in Asia. "President Moon has already indicated that he would not pursue monetary compensations from Japan. What more could he do as a head of state?"
Professor Yang Ki-ho at Sungkonghoe University, an expert on Japan-South Korea relations, said Tokyo is too busy dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and preparing for the Tokyo Olympics this summer to give much thought to its tense ties with South Korea.
International relations professor Ha Jong-mon at Hanshin University said South Korea-Japan ties will only get more tense when Japanese politicians make their annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine in April, where some 1,000 war criminals are enshrined among 2.5 million war dead.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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