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Isolation is a bigger enemy than the enemy

Published: 15 Feb. 2024, 20:34

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is said to be doubling down on efforts to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. According to the Financial Times, Kishida is hoping for a diplomatic breakthrough with Pyongyang by bringing home Japanese abductees to help lift his faltering popularity. Kishida in a recent interview said that he was making “various approaches” toward North Korea and was determined to hold direct talks with the North Korean leader “without setting any conditions.” Asked about the matter during a parliamentary session last week, the prime minister said it was “extremely important to take the initiative to build top-level ties” with Pyongyang and that Tokyo should not “waste any moment.”

The idea gained traction after Kim sent Kishida a rare condolence message addressing the prime minister as “Your Excellency” after a powerful earthquake hit Japan last month. At that time, Pyongyang upped saber-rattling against Seoul, labeling South Korea as its archenemy and inter-Korean relations as “hostile ones.” Whether a summit between Kishida and Kim can be realized is uncertain, but North Korea may be looking to isolate South Korea by cozing up with Japan.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump, who called Kim his friend, is the frontrunner in the Republican primary to elect the candidate in the Nov. 5 presidential election. If Trump returns to Washington, Kim could attempt to directly contact the United States — unlike in 2018 when it included South Korea as the mediator. After strengthening its alliance with China and Russia to effectively counter tighter ties among South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, North Korea could try to break up the trilateral alliance through direct talks with Washington and Tokyo.

To bring North Korea back to the negotiating table, improvements in its relationship with America and Japan could be needed. But South Korea must make sure that it is not left out or aside. The country must not forget how it suffered under Japan’s colonization, a territorial bisection, and a war against its wishes. It must never repeat its past mistakes of bearing all the costs while the U.S. took the credit for denuclearization talks with North Korea.

Kishida will visit Seoul next month for summit talks. The government must closely discuss strategies toward Pyongyang. It must deepen diplomatic and intelligence cooperation and exchanges through all possible channels with the U.S. and Japan.

The North has fired multiple cruise missiles. It is beefing up the modernization of weaponry and the development of new weapons. Our trilateral security cooperation is the core deterrence against North Korea. Only when South Korea, the U.S. and Japan move as one diplomatically or militarily can they have overwhelming power.