Yoon Suk Yeol became the first South Korean president to visit Japan in 12 years on Thursday, in a step towards repairing a relationship strained by history and building co-operation in the face of North Korea’s frequent missile launches.
Mr Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are expected to present a united front against growing regional tension and discuss co-operation on supply chains. In doing so, they look to leave behind years of animosity sparked by Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.
The urgency of regional security and the threat posed by North Korea were underscored in the hours before Mr Yoon’s arrival, when the North fired a long-range ballistic missile that landed in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.
“There is an increasing need for (South) Korea and Japan to co-operate in this time,” Mr Yoon said in a written interview with international media on Wednesday, calling both North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats and supply chain disruptions a “polycrisis”.
Mr Yoon has said that he expects to “invigorate” security co-operation and the two leaders are preparing to confirm the restart of a bilateral security dialogue which has been suspended since 2018, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Tokyo and Seoul are also expected to revive “shuttle diplomacy” of regular visits between the leaders, according to a Yomiuri daily report citing Japanese government sources.
Still, Japan remains cautious about immediate improvements in relations, with a Japanese government official who requested anonymity saying that “Japan and South Korea relations are looking up, but it’s still a step-by-step process”.
In a fresh reminder of the long-running tensions, two South Korean victims of wartime forced labour filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking compensation from Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Relations between the two countries, which have been strained over the wartime labour issue as well as disputed islands, and Korean girls and women forced to work in Japanese wartime brothels, made headway last week when Seoul announced a plan for its companies to compensate former forced labourers. The victims who filed the lawsuit reject that plan.
Mr Kishida has welcomed the labour compensation move and spoke of hopes of “bolstering relations” with Yoon’s visit. – Reuters