[Column] Communicate before striking a deal

Wi Sung-lac
The author is a former South Korean representative to the six-party talks and head of the diplomacy and security division of the JoongAng Ilbo’s Reset Korea campaign.

Korea is moving faster to address disputes over the past with Japan ahead of an upcoming diplomatic event.

The conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration expressed the will to improve ties with Japan at two summits since it launched in May. The most contentious issue was how to compensate wartime forced labor. The government has not yet made it official, but it seems it wants to remunerate survivors of forced labor through a fund using donations from Korean companies and voluntary contributions from Japanese companies. That deviates from the Supreme Court’s ruling that Japanese companies must compensate them.

As the approach reflects compromise by Seoul, it could be accepted by Tokyo. The government may have thought it cannot resolve the issue without demonstrating flexibility on its part first. But what matters is public sentiment and hostile reactions from the opposition parties and progressives.

A successful settlement of diplomatic disputes requires negotiations with foreign governments on the external front and canvassing and coordinating public opinion on the internal front. In the process, the government must wrestle with the question of what solution it must come up with and how to build domestic consensus on it. When it comes to such volatile issues, the government must prioritize the question of how, in particular.

The Yoon administration took a proactive approach to negotiate with Japan on the external front, including on devising solutions on the issue. But the question is how to build consensus on the domestic front. It is uncertain if the government’s compromised approach — financial compensation through a fund mostly collected from Korean companies — would be accepted by the public and opposition parties, let alone surviving victims. It is dangerous if the government believes it can push a solution on its own.

The government would take pride in what it has been doing on the domestic front, such as the operation of a civilian-government consultative body, frequent contacts with victims, and arranging a meeting between leaders of the governing People Power Party (PPP) and the Democratic Party (DP).

But the results of such efforts are not so promising. The civilian-government consultative body stopped short of converging public opinion. The government did make contact with surviving victims but it only confirmed their disagreement. Some people left the consultative body while others oppose remuneration by a third party. Dialogue with political leaders had limits, too, as it was just a one-time event.

The conservative administration’s instinctive reluctance to communicate with opponents, including liberal critics, may have played a part in its failure to collect public opinion. Worse, the approval rating for the Yoon administration is still low and the PPP and DP are mired in an extremely tense confrontation over nearly every issue. No one knows what will happen when the government announces an official solution. If a controversial agreement is reached, it will be reversed by the next administration. If a court puts the brakes on a solution, it could be a serious roblem. Some critics have already found fault with a third party-based solution.

But if the government hammers out a solution after canvassing different views from opponents and communicating with them, it can help reduce controversy. The best solution would be legislation of the process as proposed by former National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang. In that case, most political and legal problems can be solved. That calls for bipartisan cooperation and agreement. But it is unclear if both parties can do that due to their deep-rooted hostility. The next best solution is to broaden the base for consensus by more and closer communication to gain momentum to help dilute resistance against a solution.

President Yoon will likely visit Japan early next year to discuss a wide range of issues, including wartime forced labor in particular. But the government seems to be rushing to present a solution ahead of a summit, reach an agreement with Tokyo and publicize it without making effort to build a consensus before.

As the past issue between the two countries is politically explosive, a solution also should be found in a political way, not a bureaucratic or administrative manner. I hope the Yoon administration communicates with stakeholders extensively before attempting to reach an agreement with Japan.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.