Yoon Suk-yeol asks Keidanren to help with Japan relations

Politics

Published: 04 Jul. 2022, 18:16

Yoon Suk-yeol asks Keidanren to help with Japan relations

President Yoon Suk-yeol, right, holds a meeting with a visiting delegation from the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, in the Yongsan Presidential Office in central Seoul Monday afternoon. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Yoon Suk-yeol asked Japanese business leaders to help the two neighbors use "strength and wisdom" to repair badly deteriorated relations.

Yoon made the plea to a delegation from the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, that visited the Yongsan Presidential Office in central Seoul Monday afternoon.

The presidential office said Yoon discussed ways to expand economic and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

Yoon asked businesspeople from both countries to "continue to communicate so that the scope of cooperation can be expanded in the economic security era in the future," according to his presidential office.

He added that the "governments of Korea and Japan should work together to resolve current issues in bilateral relations."

The Keidanren delegation was visiting Seoul to attend the 29th Korea-Japan Business Council, which was held Monday morning after a nearly three-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

The visit came after Yoon had several encounters with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a NATO Summit in Madrid last week. The two leaders have yet to hold a bilateral summit but held trilateral talks in Spain with U.S. President Joe Biden.

Yoon said the visit by the Keidanren delegation was "an opportunity to lead to the revitalization of practical exchanges between the two countries."

In response, the Japanese visitors "confirmed their will to continue their efforts to improve Korea-Japan relations and expand and develop economic cooperation."

This was the first time a Korean president met with a Keidanren delegation since former President Park Geun-hye in October 2016. President Moon Jae-in didn't meet separately with the Keidanren during his administration, though he had an encounter with a delegation on the sidelines of a Korea-China-Japan summit in Tokyo in 2018.

Keidanren Chairman Masakazu Tokura, chairman of the board of Sumitomo Chemical, Huh Chang-soo, head of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han and other presidential and economic officials attended the meeting.

Tokura said, according to the presidential office, "Korea and Japan are important neighbors that have a close and mutually beneficial relationship in all aspects including politics, economy and culture."

He added that the Japanese business community would continue to work hard to maintain and develop friendly relations in business.

Yoon asked the Japanese business leaders to "pay special attention" to Busan's bid to host the 2030 World Expo, noting that this could lead to an opportunity to promote exchanges between the two countries.

Seoul and Tokyo's relations have deteriorated in recent years over historical issues stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule over Korea, such as compensation for forced laborers and wartime sexual slavery victims.

On Monday, the Korean government established a new public-private consultative body to try to resolve the issue of compensation for the Korean victims of wartime forced labor. First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong presided over the inaugural meeting, which sought the viewpoints of government officials, experts and legal representatives of the victims and their families.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]