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| Park Jin, right, nominee for foreign minister at the time, poses with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi in Seoul, May 9, when the latter visited Korea to attend the inaugural ceremony of President Yoon Suk-yeol. Courtesy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
Foreign ministers of Korea, Japan to meet for first time in nearly five years
By Kang Seung-woo
The foreign ministers of Korea and Japan will sit face to face later this week for the first time in four years and seven months, offering a glimmer of hope of a thaw in chilled ties between the neighboring countries over wartime forced labor and territorial issues.
However, the timing of Foreign Minister Park Jin's trip to Tokyo does not seem perfect for Korea to restore the frayed relations, which is one of President Yoon Suk-yeol's foreign policy goals, amid an increasing number of domestic issues within Japan that are significantly related to its ties with Korea.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Park will visit Japan from Monday to Wednesday, during which he will hold his first meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi since taking office in May.
During the three-day visit, Park will also seek to meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, while expressing his condolences to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot and killed at a campaign event in Nara earlier this month.
Park initially planned to visit Tokyo last month, but rescheduled it in consideration of the situation in Japan ahead of the Upper House election in the shadow of Abe's assassination.
"In many respects, it is a pity that the foreign minister's visit had to be pushed back," said Choi Eun-mi, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
"However, while there are many pending bilateral issues between the two countries, it is a good idea to hold talks ― although it would not be easy to find immediate breakthroughs in their relations."
Park's trip comes as bilateral relations have fallen to their worst level in years over the issue of Japan compensating Koreans who were forced to labor during World War II. And in this regard, the Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has vowed to hold as many senior-level talks as possible with Tokyo.
Initially, the Korean government had expected that there would have been room for Kishida to break away from the legacy of Abe, a kingmaker in intraparty politics despite his resignation two years ago, and wield his own leadership after the election, thereby guiding his cabinet to move forward in improving relations with Korea.
However, the sudden death of Abe, who maintained a hawkish stance on Korea, has thrown cold water on Seoul's expectations, as Japan is expected to see sweeping support for the former premier and uphold his foreign policy objectives for the time being, leaving little room for the current prime minister to maneuver in terms of bilateral ties.
Additionally, Abe's faction, comprised of some 90 lawmakers, still exists, although it remains to be seen if it will continue to have influence within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party under a new leader.
"The current political situation in Japan is likely to last for at least a couple of months. In addition, the Abe faction is still a political force to be reckoned with despite his death," Choi said.
"In that respect, it would be difficult for Kishida to show his own leadership and have dissenting views among the faction. Rather, he is expected to retain Abe's pre-existing policy toward Korea."
Along with the current situation in Japan, signs of the Japanese government proposing constitutional amendments to expand its military's scope of operation and its unyielding claims that the Korean government should come up with an acceptable solution to the forced labor issue, could further thwart Seoul's efforts to mend ties with Tokyo.
The issue of constitutional reform is a highly sensitive subject for Korea, which suffered under Japan's brutal colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.
In separate 2018 rulings, Korea's Supreme Court ordered Japanese companies found guilty of exploiting forced labor during WW II to compensate surviving Korean victims.
The companies ― Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries ― have refused to pay and the victims are in a legal process of seeking to liquidate the firms' assets in Korea, with the Supreme Court's final call expected to come next month. The Japanese government has threatened to retaliate against Korea in the event of the court-ordered liquidation.
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