Japan’s Foreign Minister to Attend South Korean President’s Inauguration – The Diplomat

Tokyo Report | Diplomacy | East Asia

Japan introduced Friday that its international minister will attend new South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s inauguration ceremony subsequent week as a part of an effort to carry the nations’ strained relations again to regular.

Though the choice to ship International Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa to Seoul indicators Japan’s willingness to enhance dialogue with South Korea, the absence of Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on the occasion underscores the nonetheless unresolved points which were a continuing thorn of their ties.

Japan despatched a vice prime minister to the 2013 inauguration, and serving prime ministers attended the 2 earlier ceremonies. No international visitors have been invited in 2017 for outgoing President Moon Jae-in’s swearing-in.

Relations between the nations have plunged to their lowest stage due to disputes over Japanese atrocities stemming from its 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, together with brutal therapy of wartime Korean laborers and sexual abuse of ladies at navy brothels.

The disagreements over historical past have been sophisticated by court docket rulings, together with the 2018 South Korean Supreme Courtroom order for Japanese firms to pay compensation to wartime Korean laborers.

Having fun with this text? Click on right here to subscribe for full entry. Simply $5 a month.

Japan maintains all compensation points have been settled beneath a 1965 treaty normalizing their ties and criticized South Korea for breaching worldwide regulation. The disputes have affected commerce relations and safety cooperation, inflicting concern amid threats from China and North Korea.

Hayashi will make a two-day journey to Seoul starting Monday as Kishida’s particular envoy, the International Ministry mentioned, stressing the significance to take care of communication with the brand new authorities in Seoul.

Hayashi is predicted to carry talks with quite a lot of prime officers in Yoon’s authorities, together with his counterpart, however Japanese officers mentioned particulars have been nonetheless being labored out. Hayashi is the primary Japanese international minister to go to South Korea since Kono Taro in 2018.

Final week, a delegation from Yoon’s incoming administration held a collection of conferences with prime officers in Tokyo together with Kishida, and so they agreed to make efforts to clean their ties.

Cooperation between Japan and South Korea, in addition to with the USA, their mutual ally, is “indispensable for the steadiness within the area together with their response to North Korea,” Hayashi instructed reporters earlier than his journey was introduced.

“Though Japan-South Korea relations are in extraordinarily extreme situations, we can not go away them alone,” Hayashi mentioned. “To be able to put Japan-South Korea ties again to wholesome relations, I plan to intently talk with President-elect Yoon and his new administration however by sustaining Japan’s constant place.”