The leaders of Japan and South Korea promised to turn the page on years of animosity at a meeting, putting aside their difficult shared history and pledging to work together to counter regional security challenges. | Reuters
“Improved ties between Seoul and Tokyo will help us embrace trilateral opportunities to advance our common regional and international priorities, including our vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We applaud Prime Minister Kishida and President Yoon for taking this positive step forward.”
Christopher Johnstone, formerly East Asia director of U.S. President Joe Biden’s National Security Council and now with Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said there was reason for optimism the breakthrough would prove durable, given shared concerns about China snd North Korea.
They also agreed to revive regular bilateral visits and to restart a security dialogue suspended since 2018. Yoon also declared a “complete normalisation” of an intelligence-sharing pact, known as GSOMIA, which Seoul threatened to pull out of in 2019.The relationship has been strained by a dispute over wartime history, including over compensation of South Koreans forced to work under Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation, as well as the issue of women and girls forced into Japanese military brothels.
“This week Tokyo saw its cherry blossom trees blooming a little earlier than usual,” Kishida said as he faced Yoon across a table. “Today’s meeting with Prime Minister Kishida has a special meaning of letting the people of our two countries know that South Korea-Japan relations, which have gone through difficult times due to various pending issues, are at a new starting oint,” Yoon said.
Nevertheless, economic ties are strong. IMF data shows the two countries were each other’s fourth-largest export markets in 2021. Japanese exports to South Korea totalled $52 billion and South Korean exports to Japan $30 billion.
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