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| Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Lee Nak-yon, left, and Japanese Ambassador to Korea Koji Tomita meet at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday, to discuss thorny diplomatic issues between Seoul and Tokyo, including the wartime forced labor issue and a trade row. Yonhap |
By Jung Da-min
Ruling Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Lee Nak-yon has been engaging in active diplomacy to resolve a years-long row between Seoul and Tokyo centering on the issue of wartime forced labor, meeting recently with senior Japanese politicians.
Lee met Japanese Ambassador to Korea Koji Tomita at the National Assembly, Thursday, to discuss thorny diplomatic issues between Seoul and Tokyo, including the wartime forced labor issue and a trade row widely seen as stemming from it. In October 2018, Korea's Supreme Court ordered Japanese firms to compensate surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation of the peninsula.
"Regarding the current issues between Korea and Japan, we have not yet found an exit, but a positive movement for solving the problem is appearing gradually," Lee told reporters after the meeting with Tomita. "We hold the same view that the diplomatic authorities of both countries agree on the basic direction (to solve the conflicts)."
Lee said it would be difficult for Japan's trade restrictions on Korean companies to be dealt with separately from the forced labor issue. "Considering all aspects such as the importance and history of Seoul-Tokyo relations as well as changes in the global order, there will be no option other than bilateral cooperation," he said.
The lawmaker, who is well known here as having a good understanding of Japan and being well-networked with Japanese politicians, also held a closed-door meeting Sunday in Seoul with Takeo Kawamura, a former chief cabinet secretary and current head of the Japan-Korea parliamentary group. Kawamura is a close aide to Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and current Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
It is reportedly said Kawamura referred to former National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang's proposal made last year for a possible compromise deal to close the compensation issue on forced labor.
Moon's proposal, which included compensation for surviving South Korean victims of forced labor as well as the victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery, is to collect "donations" from Japanese and Korean businesses, and financial contributions from individuals from the two countries to provide funds for the victims. But the proposal was scrapped automatically when the 20th National Assembly ended in April this year.
"Moon's proposal was considered by both the Assembly and the government as not an acceptable plan. I believe the situation would not be much different even if a similar bill was proposed … The surviving victims would not agree with such a bill," Lee told reporters during a press conference with foreign correspondents here, Wednesday.
During the conference, Lee also expressed hope that the conflicts can be resolved before the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics if the two countries are serious about resolving them.
He cited comments from Korean Ambassador to Japan Nam Gwan-pyo, who said in Wednesday's Assembly audit that he felt some positivity about the bilateral conflicts following the launch of the Suga administration.
"It is said that Prime Minister Suga is taking over the policies of his predecessor Shinzo Abe, but Suga himself will take a practical approach," Nam said. "I presume the new administration will have a forward-looking stance because the issues of conflict are linked to the lives of its people."
But concerns remain that the current rows between the countries will not be resolved in the near future.
Regarding Lee's comments over the forced labor issue in Wednesday's press conference, Japan's chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato reiterated his country's stance, Thursday, that the Korean Supreme Court ruling over the issue and resulting judicial process were against international law.
Kato said Japan has asked Korea to urgently come up with a solution which it can accept, and is still maintaining that position.
Earlier this month, Kyodo News also reported that Tokyo told Seoul late last month that it would be impossible for Suga to attend a trilateral summit between Korea, Japan and China, slated to be held in Seoul later this year, unless the bilateral friction over compensation for wartime forced labor is resolved.
