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An acute hangover from broken promises

Published: 04 Dec. 2024, 19:34 Updated: 05 Dec. 2024, 00:13

Yoo Jee-hye
The author is the head of the diplomatic and security news department at the JoongAng Ilbo.

If you were deceived once, the deceiver is bad. But if you were repeatedly deceived by the same person, it’s your fault. That’s exactly what I felt while watching the lead-up to the tragic end of the Nov. 24 ceremony hosted by the Japanese government to pay tribute to the victims of the Sado Mines. When they were registered as a Unesco World Heritage Site in July despite controversy over the ruthless work environments, Seoul endorsed it with strings attached.

The government explained that Japan already built an exhibition hall dedicated to Korean victims and promised to hold a memorial service for them annually from this year. But nowhere was the expression “forced labor” to be seen in the exhibition hall.

Tokyo said the first memorial service would be staged between July and August. But even fixing the date was not easy from the start. Japan cited domestic issues like the upcoming general election, but it was no different from delaying it without clear reasons.

In the consultation process for the first ceremony, the Japanese government slyly sought to change “a tribute” into “an appreciation event” and selected its representative only two days before the ceremony. After the news broke that Tokyo had planned to send a senior official who had a record of paying a visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, public opinion in Korea rapidly worsened. The report was later proved wrong, but Japan nevertheless skipped any apology or recognition of forced labor in the eulogy for the victims.

Should we really welcome our government’s last-minute decision to not attend the event after being cheated by Tokyo over and over?

The problem is that Seoul took no action throughout the diplomatic debacle. It didn’t show any official position on the unfathomable developments. Even National Security Advisor Shin Won-sik didn’t say anything about Japan’s diplomatic discourtesy when he appeared on a television program.

But let’s face it. Before the news report about the right-wing politician’s visit to the shrine was proven wrong, our Foreign Ministry said, “We have decided to dispatch a vice minister-level official to the ceremony because Tokyo accepted our demand for the attendance of a high-level Japanese official in the ceremony.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs seemed to portray Tokyo’s acceptance of its demand as a big diplomatic achievement.

The following day, however, Seoul decided to not attend the event. The foreign ministry said the decision itself represents a strong protest. Was such a drastic about-turn really possible without the president's approval? If the ministry had made the decision on its own, it must have been a brave government organization.

When President Yoon Suk Yeol in March presented the idea of third-party compensation for forced labor, it felt like a brave decision befitting a head of state. But Japan’s reluctance to accept the idea is a shackle to Korea’s diplomacy toward Japan.

Yoon’s initiative to put the Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation on a new level by improving Korea’s ties with Japan deserves a compliment and will remain as one of his diplomatic achievements. But his blind pursuit of the justification for the improvement in the bilateral relations without caring for the volatility of the past issue does not deserve praise. Does the president really believe the Korean people must follow his lead over the sensitive issue?

The presidential office would certainly not want the improved bilateral relations to be damaged by the controversy over the Sado Mines. But even such prudence can be deemed dismissive of the worsening public sentiment in Korea.

If such episodes continue, it will surely fuel the opposition’s persistent crusade against Japan. In that case, it will inflict critical damage on the two neighbors’ cooperation to deal with Trump 2.0, particularly on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the normalization of the Korea-Japan relations.

After Japanese news media reported that Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru will visit Seoul in January, our government emphatically said, “Nothing has been fixed.” But the government is reportedly making a behind-the-scenes effort for a summit between Yoon and Shigeru. If the prime minister chooses Korea as his first destination for diplomacy after taking office in the 60th year of the diplomatic ties, President Yoon will certainly welcome him as he should.

But it could be better if Yoon meets with the families of the victims of the mines to console their battered souls before having a toast for the 60th anniversary. They attended a separate ceremony hosted by the Korean government near the mines yet didn’t find fault with their government. If the president can do that, he can show his determination to take care of them no matter what happens between the two countries.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.