Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Sunday in Seoul that he had “a bleeding heart” in the face of the suffering of Koreans under Japanese colonization, during a visit intended to pursue, in the face of the nuclear threat from Pyongyang, the rapprochement between the two countries with often stormy relations.
Kishida met Sunday with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who himself visited Japan in March. This is the first official visit by a Japanese Prime Minister to South Korea in twelve years, apart from a visit by Shinzo Abe in 2018 for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Relations between Seoul and Tokyo remain haunted by the brutal colonization of the Korean peninsula by Japan between 1910 and 1945. They deteriorated considerably in 2018 after a South Korean court ruling ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation for the forced labor suffered by many Koreans during this period.
In March, Mr. Yoon presented a plan to compensate these victims, without compulsory financial participation from Japan. It is time to “break the vicious circle of mutual hostility”, he told AFP before leaving for Tokyo in March.
“As the South Korean government moves forward, I am touched to see how many people open their hearts to the future without forgetting the difficulties of the past,” Kishida said after his meeting with Mr. Yoon Sunday.
“My heart bleeds at the very difficult and sad experiences of so many people in the harsh circumstances of the time,” he continued, without going so far as to formally apologize for the abuses of the Imperial Japan.
“Through my friendship and trust in Prime Minister Kishida, I will encourage deeper bilateral cooperation towards a new future,” Yoon replied.
During the South Korean president’s visit to Japan, Tokyo and Seoul lifted their mutual trade restrictions. In April, Japan announced the re-listing of South Korea to its “white” list of trusted trading partners, from which it had removed it in 2019 in retaliation for the 2018 judgment.
MM. Yoon and Kishida had also pledged to resume “shuttle diplomacy” between their two countries, a mechanism for regular meetings between leaders interrupted since 2011. And Mr. Kishida had invited Mr. Yoon to attend a G7 summit in May in Hiroshima, Japan.
This rapprochement is strongly encouraged by the United States, their common ally, in the face of threats from North Korea. Pyongyang has been testing missiles for more than a year – some of which fly over Japan – and declared in September that its status as a nuclear power was “irreversible”.
The United States and South Korea have strengthened their defense cooperation, holding a series of major military exercises, including two trilateral exercises involving Japan this year.
Upon his arrival, Mr. Kishida immediately went to the Seoul National Cemetery, where South Korean fighters are buried, to lay flowers there. “It’s rare for a sitting Japanese prime minister to visit this place,” Lim Eun-jung, a professor at Kongju National University, told YTN television.
The two leaders then dined together on Sunday evening at the presidential residence in Seoul.
But this rapprochement between Tokyo and Seoul does not only make people happy.
A hundred demonstrators gathered Sunday morning in the Korean capital to protest against the visit of Mr. Kishida, demanding that disputes related to colonization be at the top of the agenda.
Mr Kishida “must sincerely apologize for Japan’s crimes against humanity and take responsibility,” said protester Kim Jae-won.
Experts had widely predicted that Tokyo would not make a formal apology for its colonial past during this visit.
“Even though (Kishida) said it was his personal sentiment, I would like to note his expression of sincerity,” Choi Eunmi, a researcher at the Asan Institute of Policy Studies, told YTN. “And I think that’s significant, because we’re only at the first stage of restoring shuttle diplomacy.”
07/05/2023 13:48:48 – Seoul (AFP) © 2023 AFP
