Yoon says Korea-Japan relations must leave past behind

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at a Cabinet meeting, March 21. Yonhap

• Published Mar 21, 2023 11:08 AM KST
• Updated Mar 21, 2023 4:58 PM KST

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that bilateral relations between Korea and Japan must leave the past behind and move forward, as he faces a growing backlash at home over a recent summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

"Korea-Japan relations must move beyond the past," Yoon told a Cabinet meeting. "Korea-Japan relations can and must be a win-win relationship that works together and gains more together."

Yoon also said relations with Japan "are not a zero-sum relationship."

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea and other critics have blasted Yoon for cozying up to Japan at the expense of Korea's national interests, after the government decided to compensate victims of Japan's wartime forced labor on its own without asking Japan for contributions.

The DPK has also raised suspicions that Yoon could have made unannounced concessions to Japan, following Japanese news reports that the two leaders also discussed the issue of Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo, Japan's wartime sexual slavery and Seoul's import ban on fisheries products from Japan's Fukushima.

Yoon said the previous Moon Jae-in government did nothing about the "deeply mired relations" with Japan.

"I also could have chosen the comfortable path for immediate political gains and left the worst-ever Korea-Japan relations as they are," Yoon said. "I thought I would be breaching my obligations as president if I provoked hostile nationalism and anti-Japanese sentiment for domestic politics."

In an apparent swipe at the main opposition party, Yoon also said there "still exist forces that shout exclusive nationalism, shout anti-Japanese and take political gains."

Branding Japan as "a fateful neighborhood," Yoon stressed, "I am confident that our government is now moving in the right direction."

Yoon also sought people's understanding over the government's decision to resolve the forced labor issue.

Yoon said the decision was a "compromise plan" between the 1965 treaty that normalized bilateral ties with Japan and the 2018 ruling by Korea's top court that ordered Japanese firms to compensate the victims of the wartime force labor.

"We will do our best to heal the pain of the victims and the bereaved families," Yoon said.

Although Kishida did not directly apologize for Japan's wartime past during the summit with Yoon, the president said, "Japan has already expressed its regret and apology to us on dozens of occasions for past history issues." (Yonhap)