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| President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida / Korea Times phto |
Incoming president needs to make 'political' decision, convince public
By Kang Seung-woo
Even though President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who wants to mend frayed ties with Japan, takes office in May, strained bilateral relations will not return to normal overnight due to longstanding historical issues, according to diplomatic observers.
Currently, ties between Korea and Japan have slumped to their worst level in years due to Tokyo's imposition of export controls on three key materials critical for the semiconductor and display industries here, in apparent retaliation against a ruling by Korea's Supreme Court ordering Japanese companies to compensate surviving Koreans victims of wartime forced labor.
On Monday, Yoon held a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Koichi Aiboshi, where he called for a future-oriented approach to worsening bilateral ties. But it came to light the following day that Japan will remove expressions and descriptions of forced labor and sex slavery in some of its history textbooks for high school students, in what seems to be a move to whitewash its wartime atrocities.
"While Korea and Japan have shown hugely different views on thorny bilateral issues, their current ties are also at the lowest point. Under the circumstances, an immediate and dramatic shift in Korea-Japan ties is not likely even though the two heads of state want to improve them," said Choi Eun-mi, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
"If such bilateral history-related issues occur frequently, domestic sentiment toward Japan could worsen, which will make it more difficult for the new president to mend fences with Japan."
However, Choi said the timing between the meeting and the textbook issue was accidental, given that the Yoon-Aiboshi meeting was rearranged after the Japanese ambassador had tested positive for COVID-19.
Lee Won-deog, a professor of Japanese studies at Kookmin University, said it is not easy to just say that rapprochement between Korea and Japan will escalate with the launch of a new administration, citing barriers to improving relations between the two neighbors, including the wartime forced labor issue and the planned release of radioactive water from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, which was damaged in a 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
In addition, the Japanese government is currently seeking to add a controversial site to UNESCO's World Heritage list next year, despite its connection with the wartime use of Korean laborers.
"Despite the thorny issues, if the president wants to get bilateral ties back on track, he should make a political decision, which will inevitably draw backlash from opponents," Lee said.
"In that respect, a new administration does not guarantee better relations."
However, the experts advised the incoming president to show his determination to mend soured ties, while also dealing with domestic sentiment toward Japan.
"Although there are several pending bilateral issues, if the president or the government shows a willingness to improve ties with Japan, I believe there is a window of opportunity for rapprochement," Lee said.
Choi said, "The current administration took political advantage of anti-Japan sentiment, so it will be a task for the new administration to mobilize all of its diplomatic abilities to advance relations with Japan, while swaying domestic opinion regarding the need to improve them."
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