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| Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, right, talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before an expanded summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on June 30. Yonhap |
US Secretary of State Pompeo to mediate Korea-Japan row at ARF
By Lee Min-hyung
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono will meet today on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Bangkok, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wednesday.
This is the first time for the top diplomats of the two countries to meet since Japan implemented restrictions on its exports of some high-tech materials used by Korean manufacturers earlier this month, the ministry said.
On her trip to Bangkok, she said she would focus on drawing international consensus on the unfairness of Japan's export restrictions on South Korea.
"I will point out Japan's export curbs are not fair and urge Japan to stop the action immediately," she told reporters Wednesday before leaving for Bangkok.
The ARF will also be an occasion for the U.S. to mediate in the deepening Korea-Japan row. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to have a trilateral meeting with his counterparts from the two Asian allies on the sidelines of the forum.
On Wednesday, Kang departed for the Thai capital to attend the meeting where she plans to address the "unfair" economic action taken by Japan. Kono and Pompeo also arrived in Bangkok on the same day.
"I'll meet with Foreign Minister Kang, I'll meet with Foreign Minister Kono, and then I'll meet with the two of them together, and we will encourage them to find a path forward," Pompeo said en route to Bangkok in a transcript released by the State Department Tuesday. "We think it's important. They're both great partners of ours; they're both working closely with us on our efforts to denuclearize North Korea. So if we can help them find a good place for each of their two countries, we certainly find that important to the United States, indeed, as well as to each of those two countries. So I hope we'll have a good conversation and we can help get to a good place."
The South Korean foreign authority also confirmed that the three officials will meet together in Bangkok and seek a breakthrough to end the month-long political conflict.
"The trilateral meeting will take place sometime during the ARF, but no specific timeline has been fixed," an official from the ministry said.
All eyes are on whether Pompeo will be able to help the U.S.' two Asian partners narrow their differences.
Last year, Seoul's Supreme Court ruled Japanese firms should compensate surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor, which sparked a strong backlash from Japan. Tokyo argued the issue was already settled by the 1965 treaty between the two countries.
With South Korea stepping up pressure on Japan over the ruling, Tokyo took economic retaliation earlier this month by restricting exports to South Korea of some chemical materials crucial for manufacturing semiconductors and display panels. This has dealt a blow to South Korean tech firms, such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, whose major cash cows come from producing memory chips.
Chances are that the meeting between the two foreign ministers will be held sometime before Aug. 2, the date that Japan plans to make a decision over whether to remove South Korea from the so-called whitelist of countries receiving preferential trade treatment.
The action, if implemented, is seen as part of Tokyo's additional retaliation on Seoul. Once the Japanese Cabinet makes the official decision, this will take effect later in August.
In a National Assembly meeting, Tuesday, Kang warned Japan not to remove South Korea from the list, as this will end up worsening their diplomatic relations.
"If Japan decides to exclude South Korea from the list, the relations between the two countries will deteriorate uncontrollably," she said.
The head of the South Korean foreign ministry also hinted at the possibility that Seoul might abolish the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), the bilateral pact between Seoul and Tokyo, if Japan-driven economic and political retaliation continues.
It remains unclear whether Kang will be able to come to a settlement with her Japanese counterpart amid the worsening row between the two sides in the wake of their recent meeting at the World Trade Organization.
For this reason, Washington's role as a facilitator for talks between the two is getting more crucial. U.S. reports recently said that Washington is considering urging Seoul and Tokyo to sign a "standstill agreement" for them to have more time for negotiations.
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