Japanese right wing looking to cooperate with Korea says ambassador

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Japanese right wing looking to cooperate with Korea says ambassador

Korean Ambassador to Japan Yun Duk-min speaks with the press at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Monday. [YONHAP]

Korean Ambassador to Japan Yun Duk-min speaks with the press at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Monday. [YONHAP]

There have been significant indications in recent months that some right-wingers in Japan are pivoting toward working with Korea, Korea's Ambassador to Japan Yun Duk-min said, in a meeting with the press in Seoul on Monday.
 
"Within the past few months, there have been movements within the right wing in Japan to increasingly emphasize and call for cooperation with Korea," he said, addressing a group of reporters at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Monday. "This creates a favorable environment for the [Fumio] Kishida government to make some progress on some issues with Korea."
 
Yun, posted to Tokyo last July, was in Seoul on Monday to attend an ambassadorial meeting hosted by the foreign minister.
 
In his assessments of the recent summit meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo earlier this month, Yun said that the two countries cannot "resolve all historic issues at once."
 
The Democratic Party members, some local media outlets and civic groups in Korea criticized the first bilateral visit in 12 years for failing to win due returns from Japan, such as a direct apology from Kishida to the forced labor victims or any announcement from relevant Japanese companies to pitch into the compensation fund Korea established.
 
To resolve an ongoing legal row between the Koreans who were forced to work in Japan during its 1910-45 occupation of Korea and the Japanese companies sued by these Koreans and their relatives, the Yoon government proposed earlier this month a creation of a fund to compensate the victims to which Korean companies donate.
 
These companies would be those that benefitted from the 1965 normalization treaty between Korea and Japan, in which Japan gave Korea $300 million in economic aid and $500 million in loans.  
 
Japan claims that the 1965 normalization treaty has resolved all compensation issues.
 
"The solution that the government proposed was a difficult one and one likely made out of desperate measures," Yun said, referring to the forced labor compensation proposal by the Yoon administration.
 
Kishida, in the press conference with Yoon following their summit in Tokyo referred to a statement he made earlier this month at a committee meeting about upholding the position of "previous cabinets on historical recognition," alluding to statements made by previous governments in Japan on its colonial history with Korea.
 
Known as the Murayama statement, Kan statement or the historic joint declaration in 1998 of Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, these statements include forms of Japan's apology for its colonization of Korea and the suffering of the Korean people.
 
"While [Kishida] did not repeat word-for-word the statements from past Japanese governments, the fact that he said he upholds historical perceptions of past Japanese governments brings the trust-based relations between Korea and Japan back on track," Yun said.
 
Diplomatic spats and disputes between Korea and Japan are often rooted in this period of the Japanese occupation of Korea, such as the issue of so-called comfort women, or victims of sexual slavery by Imperial Japan, or the territorial dispute on the Dokdo islets, in addition to the forced labor issue.
 
The legal row between the Korean victims and Japanese companies has deeply soured Korea-Japan ties in recent years, impacting security and trade ties.
 
Before and after the summit, both Tokyo and Seoul made several announcements to address these issues, including Japan's lifting of export bans that affect Korea's semiconductor industry and Korea's announcement of the revocation of its official communications with Japan about suspending their security intelligence-sharing pact, also known as the General Security of Military Information Agreement. 

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]
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