Do Je-hae edits news stories as part of the AI team.
No visible turnaround after NIS chief's meeting with Suga
National Intelligence Service chief Park Jie-won speaks with reporters after his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in Tokyo, Tuesday. Yonhap
By Do Je-hae
By Do Je-hae
National Intelligence Service chief Park Jie-won met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Tuesday, in Tokyo. But the meeting seems to have ended without producing concrete answers about pressing issues, such as Suga's visit to Seoul for the upcoming Korea-Japan-China summit, and any hint of a solution for historical disputes between the two countries.
Park, who is the highest-level Korean official to meet with the new Japanese leader, met with Suga for 25 minutes, according to the Japanese foreign ministry. Suga reportedly underlined the need for bilateral cooperation as well as Japan-South Korea-U.S. cooperation for dealing with issues such as North Korea. He also requested South Korea's support on the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.
According to media reports, however, the Japanese leader renewed his request to Park that Korea create the opportunity for the two countries to restore bilateral relations that have been severely hampered by the wartime forced labor issue. This is considered to be a repetition of the rigid stance from Suga's predecessor Shinzo Abe that Korea must bring a solution to the bilateral row sparked by the 2018 Korean Supreme Court ruling that Japanese companies should compensate surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor.
After the meeting with Suga, Park told reporters that he had conveyed President Moon Jae-in's wish to mend ties with Japan. “I conveyed President Moon's intention to normalize relations with Japan to Prime Minister Suga. If we continue dialogue, I believe we will be able to attain good results,” Park said.
But Park was unable to answer questions about whether or not Suga will visit Korea for the Korea-Japan-China summit. The three countries have taken turns in hosting the annual trilateral event. The Korean government is making arrangements to host it in December, despite Suga's remarks about boycotting the event due to the bilateral row over the forced labor issue.
Some Japanese media reports have raised speculations that Park had suggested a new declaration between the leaders of the two countries that resembles the Kim-Obuchi declaration of 1998 for promoting historical reconciliation by then-President Kim Dae-jung and his Japanese counterpart Keizo Obuchi.
But chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato said Wednesday during a regular press briefing that there was no specific proposal from Park.
President Moon is apparently planning to use the Tokyo Olympics as an occasion for promoting diplomacy between not just South Korea and Japan, but also among the two Koreas, U.S. and Japan. A local daily on Wednesday mentioned the possibility of a South Korea-North Korea-U.S.-Japan summit on the sidelines of the Olympics in Tokyo. It remains to be seen whether relevant countries will show any interest in the idea.
“Olympics diplomacy is a worthy effort, but there's a lot that has to happen before a U.S.-Japan-ROK-DPRK summit in Tokyo,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told The Korea Times, referring to the two Koreas by abbreviations of their formal names. “First, the pandemic should be better controlled. Second, bilateral issues require progress, including North Korea's historical abduction of Japanese citizens. Third, rather than military provocations, Pyongyang needs to pursue working-level talks with the Biden administration to make a successful summit possible.”