South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol (L) shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida before their meeting in New York on September 21, 2022. The South Korean president wants Japan to join his efforts to improve ties fractured by Tokyo’s past colonial rule, saying there is a growing need for stronger bilateral cooperation due to the North Korean nuclear threat and global supply chain challenges. (Ahn Jung-won/Yonhap via AP, file)
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (right) shakes hands with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol during the ASEAN-East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, November 13, 2022. The South Korean president wants Japan to join his efforts to improve ties damaged by Tokyo’s past colonial rule, saying there is a growing need for stronger bilateral cooperation due to the North Korean nuclear threat and global supply chain challenges. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
President Joe Biden (center) meets with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol (left) and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (right) during the NATO summit in Madrid on June 29, 2022. The South Korean president wants Japan to join his efforts to improve ties, unhappy with Tokyo’s past colonial rule, saying there is a growing need for stronger bilateral cooperation due to the North Korean nuclear threat and global supply chain challenges. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, file)
In this photo provided by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense, South Korean and U.S. troops conduct a joint river crossing exercise in Yeoncheon, South Korea, Monday, March 13, 2023. Tokyo’s past colonial rule says there is a growing need for stronger bilateral cooperation due to the North Korean nuclear threat and global supply chain challenges. (South Korea’s Defense Ministry via Associated Press)
In this photo provided by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense, South Korean and U.S. soldiers conduct a joint river crossing exercise in Yeoncheon, South Korea, Monday, March 13, 2023. The South Korean president wants Japan to join his efforts to improve ties that have been fractured by conflict over Tokyo’s past colonial rule, saying there is a growing need for stronger bilateral cooperation due to the North Korean nuclear threat and global supply chain challenges. (South Korea’s Defense Ministry via Associated Press)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president wants Japan to join his efforts to improve ties fractured by Tokyo’s past colonial rule, saying there is a growing need for stronger bilateral cooperation due to the North Korean nuclear threat and global supply chain challenges.
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“We cannot waste time and ignore the tense South Korea-Japan relations,” South Korean President Yoon Hee-yeol said in written answers to questions from several foreign media outlets, including the Associated Press. “I believe we must end the vicious circle of mutual hostility.” , working together for the common good of our two countries.”
Yoon’s comments came Wednesday, a day before he heads to Tokyo for a closely watched summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The focus is on whether Kishida will do anything in response to Yoon’s recent plan to use South Korean funds to compensate some forced labor in colonial-era South Korea without requiring Japanese funding.
Yin’s push has drawn harsh criticism from domestic political opponents, who have accused him of what they called a “humiliating diplomatic capitulation” to Japan. But Yoon defended his decision, saying strengthening ties with Japan was crucial to addressing a range of foreign policy and economic challenges.
“In times of multiple crises, with North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats escalating and global supply chains being disrupted, South Korea and Japan increasingly need to cooperate,” Yoon said. recorded in history.”
Both South Korea and Japan are key U.S. allies and vibrant democracies that are closely linked economically and culturally. But their relationship sank to one of the lowest points in decades after South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered two Japanese companies in 2018 to compensate some of their former South Korean employees for forced labor during the 1910-45 colonial rule.
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Japan insists that all compensation issues have been resolved by a 1965 treaty that normalized bilateral relations and was accompanied by $800 million in economic aid and loans from Tokyo to Seoul. The historical dispute has spilled over into other issues, with Tokyo imposing export controls and South Korea threatening to end a military intelligence-sharing pact.
The feud has undermined U.S. efforts to strengthen its alliances in Asia to better counter North Korea’s nuclear threat and China’s rise.
Since taking office in May last year, Yoon, a conservative, has focused on repairing relations with Japan, strengthening the military alliance with the United States and building a stronger trilateral security cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Tokyo. Those measures are necessary to deter North Korea, whose nuclear missiles put both South Korea and Japan within striking distance, Yoon said.
Tensions with North Korea have escalated recently, with North Korea testing a barrage of missiles in protest of South Korea-U.S. military exercises, which North Korea sees as an invasion exercise.
“With North Korea’s nuclear developments seriously threatening the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and surrounding regions, the international community needs more than ever a concerted deterrence and response — including the South Korea-U.S. alliance and South Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation,” Yoon said, citing South Korea’s official name.
After Yoon’s government announced it would use funds raised domestically to compensate former forced laborers who were awarded damages in the 2018 ruling, U.S. President Joe Biden hailed the plan as an important step in strengthening the partnership between two of Washington’s closest allies .
Experts say North Korea’s aggressive weapons testing campaign is aimed at forcing the United States to recognize it as a nuclear power and ease international sanctions, but Yoon said Kim would not be able to achieve that goal.
“Since complete denuclearization of North Korea is a clear and unchanging goal of the international community, the Republic of Korea will not recognize North Korea as a nuclear state under any circumstances,” Yoon said.
Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, he said, “continue to take strong diplomatic, economic and military measures to demonstrate that the international community is more committed to North Korea’s denuclearization than North Korea’s commitment to developing nuclear weapons.”
Yoon also called on North Korea to halt its “reckless” nuclear program and take steps to address the suffering of its people. He said South Korea was willing to provide humanitarian aid to the North Korean people, citing an assessment that “people have recently died of starvation in some areas where food shortages are getting worse.”
Yoon Optimism believes that the thawing of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan will also expand economic cooperation between technology-driven nations, which he says is crucial to addressing industrial supply chain vulnerabilities and other global challenges.
“If South Korea-Japan relations are normalized, I would like to see accelerated strategic cooperation such as technology partnerships, joint R&D and expanded mutual investment in various fields including semiconductors, space and biohealth, including materials, parts and equipment,” he said .
Yoon said expanded cooperation between the two semiconductor powerhouses, South Korea and Japan, would “greatly” increase the resilience of global supply chains that have been hit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and COVID-19, and could be impacted by a strengthening of the United States. remodel. Chinese competition.
Yoon also said South Korea and Japan should seek to advance economic ties with China in a “stable manner” while seeking to strengthen their bilateral ties.
South Korea has struggled to strike a balance between its allies, the United States and China, its largest trading partners, amid an intensifying confrontation between Washington and Beijing over regional influence and technology.
“While maintaining communication, South Korea, Japan and China will cooperate in areas of mutual interest in the economic field, including stabilizing supply chains, and addressing the health and climate crises,” he said.
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Find more AP Asia Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
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