Japan’s outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday for a final round of talks, hoping to cement improving ties before he leaves office.
The two nations, both key security allies of the United States, have long been at odds over historical issues linked to Japan’s brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, including sexual slavery and forced labour.
However, Yoon has moved to bury the hatchet in recent years, restarting regular talks with Kishida and ramping up military cooperation in the face of rising threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.
“Based on the solid trust between our two countries, the relationship between Korea and Japan has improved significantly over the past year-and-a-half,” Yoon said during talks.
“There are still difficult issues in the Korea-Japan relationship. I look forward to working together in a forward-looking manner so that our steps toward a brighter future can continue,” he said.
Kishida said his “heart breaks” thinking so many people “have experienced sad and hard” times in “such a difficult environment”, referring to the victims of the historical issues.
Although the two countries have “history”, he said that “it is very important to cooperate with South Korea toward the future by inheriting the efforts of our ancestors who have overcome difficult times”.
Kim Tae-hyo, South Korea’s deputy national security adviser, told reporters the leaders reaffirmed that “the importance of Korea-Japan relations does not change regardless of who becomes the next (Japanese) prime minister”.
Marking the 12th summit between the two leaders, some experts have called it a “significant achievement”.
“It took political courage from both sides to remove historical obstacles to shuttle diplomacy,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“Frequent summits not only facilitate policy coordination but also signal a healthy will to cooperate to working-level officials who manage functional issues, from customs and immigration to climate change,” he said.
Yoon and Kishida also signed an agreement to facilitate evacuation efforts for each other’s citizens in case of an emergency in a third country and to simplify immigration procedures.
‘Improving relations’
Kim said the leaders stressed the importance of “cooperation between Korea and Japan and also with the United States, to respond to the North Korean nuclear issue”.
Yoon and Kishida met US President Joe Biden at Camp David last year for a summit aimed at improving their joint response to North Korea.
Kim said the leaders “decided to maintain their readiness to prevent” North Korean provocation with support from Russia.
Japanese media reported that Kishida may also make a final visit to Washington before stepping down.
Kishida has said he will not seek re-election as leader of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) when his tenure expires this month.
The conservative LDP is expected to decide on a new leader on September 27.
Kishida’s visit, which comes three weeks before his term ends, shows his “willingness and action to continue the momentum of improving relations between the two countries”, Choi Eun-mi, a research fellow at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told AFP.
The visit is “a message to the next prime minister to continue these efforts”, she said.
Yoon’s administration was criticised heavily in July after a network of mines on a Japanese island infamous for using conscripted wartime labour was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage register after South Korea dropped earlier objections to its listing.
Critics claimed the South Korean president was “endorsing Japan’s distortion of war crimes”.
Several civil society groups held protests opposing Kishida’s arrival on Friday.
“Every time Kishida comes President Yoon has sold the lives and safety of the South Korean people,” the spokesperson for a local peace organisation said.
Local police told AFP two people were arrested after attempting to climb a giant statue in central Seoul during a protest.
