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Yoon and Kishida to meet for summit in Tokyo on March 16 and 17

Published: 09 Mar. 2023, 18:16

Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shake hands prior to holding bilateral talks in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Nov. 13, 2022. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

President Yoon Suk Yeol will visit Tokyo from March 16 to 17 for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the presidential office said Thursday.

Yoon's two-day trip comes at the invitation of the Japanese government, and the details of the meeting are being coordinated between the two countries, according to the presidential office.

"The visit will mark the resumption of bilateral exchanges between the two countries' leaders, which had been suspended for 12 years, and will be an important milestone in the improvement and development of Korea-Japan relations," the office said in a statement.

Yoon will be accompanied by first lady, Kim Keon-hee, who is expected to take part in an event to promote friendship with Japanese first lady, Yuko Kishida.

The visit comes after the Korean government on Monday announced its decision to compensate victims of Japan's wartime forced labor through a Korea-backed public foundation without set contributions from Japanese companies.

Relations between the two countries have frayed in recent years due to historical issues related to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

Yoon and Kishida previously met on the sidelines of multilateral forums, including in September 2022 in New York during the UN General Assembly and last November in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, during Asean meetings.

Yoon's first trip to Japan since he took office in May last year could mark a return to shuttle diplomacy, with more frequent visits and meetings between the leaders of Japan among other exchanges.

The leaders of Korea and Japan haven't visited each other's countries for about 12 years as relations remained strained over ongoing territorial and historical disputes, including the Japanese military's wartime sexual slavery.

The last Japanese prime minister to visit Seoul was Yoshihiko Noda in October 2011. President Lee Myung-bak was the last Korean leader to visit Japan, in December 2011.

The presidential office said that Yoon's visit to Japan is expected expand cooperation in various areas, including security, economy, society and culture and "further invigorate exchanges between the peoples of the two countries in order to overcome their unfortunate past history and move forward into the future."

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno confirmed in a press conference on Thursday that Yoon will make a "working visit" to Japan on March 16 and 17, and that Yoon and Kishida are scheduled to "hold a summit and have dinner together."

"Korea is an important neighboring country to cooperate with in responding to various challenges in the international community," said Matsuno, expressing hopes that the visit will be an occasion to "further develop friendly and cooperative relations."

He said that "nothing has been decided yet" when asked for possible issues on the agenda.

Relations between the two countries further deteriorated after the Korean Supreme Court in 2018 ordered two Japanese companies — Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — to individually compensate the victims of forced labor during World War II.

The Japanese companies refused to comply. Tokyo maintains that all compensation issues related to Japan's colonial rule over Korea were resolved through the 1965 treaty normalizing relations. It especially protested Korean courts taking legal steps to liquidate assets of Japanese companies in Korea to compensate the plaintiffs.

The Japanese government unilaterally imposed exports restrictions on Korea in the summer of 2019, following the forced labor rulings, and led to a period of tit-for-tat diplomacy and the shunning of Japanese products.

In response Japan's decision to remove Korea from its so-called white list preferred trading partners in August 2019, Korea nearly terminated the General Security of Military Information Agreement (Gsomia), its military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo established in 2016 and renewed annually through 2018.

In November 2019, the Moon Jae-in administration conditionally suspended the decision to terminate Gsomia, technically leaving open the possibility that the pact could be scrapped at any time.

Japanese media, including Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday, reported that Seoul is expected to announce the "normalization" of Gsomia. This comes as the two countries said they will begin talks on lifting restrictions on Japanese exports to Korea.

On Monday, the Korean Foreign Ministry released a plan to compensate forced labor victims through a public foundation financed mainly by Korean companies that benefited from the 1965 claims settlement agreement with Japan. Japanese companies may "voluntarily" contribute, according to the ministry. Some Korean victims and civic groups are rejecting this plan because it doesn't involve a direct apology and compensation from the Japanese companies.

In tandem with this announcement, the Korean Industry Ministry said that it will also temporarily suspend an ongoing dispute settlement process with the World Trade Organization (WTO) procedure to protest Japan's unilateral export controls measures.

"I am aware that the Japanese government has already announced a forward-looking stance regarding export restrictions," a senior presidential official told reporters Thursday.

Issues that could be discussed in the upcoming summit include the forced labor compensation issue, Gsomia, lifting of export restrictions and the resumption of shuttle diplomacy between the two countries and other forms of exchanges across various fields.

The summit could also be an opportunity for Kishida to confirm he upholds the joint declaration of 1998 adopted by Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.

In this landmark declaration, Obuchi acknowledged the "tremendous damage and suffering to the people of the Republic of Korea through its colonial rule" and expressed "deep remorse and heartfelt apology."

The visit could also provide be an opportunity for Korean and Japanese businesspeople to meet, though Seoul officials said nothing can be confirmed yet.

The announcement of Yoon's trip to Japan comes a day after the White House confirmed that the Korean president was invited to the United States for a state visit by U.S. President Joe Biden on April 26.

The United States has welcomed the recent efforts by Yoon and Kishida to mend ties and relayed anticipation that this could lend to tighter trilateral coordination between the three countries.

BY SARAH KIM [[email protected]]