Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
Korean businesses call for compromise in Seoul-Tokyo relations
Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Chairman Chey Tae-won, right, accompanies President Moon Jae-in during a ceremony to mark the 48th Commerce and Industry Day at the KCCI headquarters in central Seoul, March 31. Korea Times file
By Yi Whan-woo
Business, political sources say any dramatic improvement in bilateral relations is unlikely
By Yi Whan-woo
The Korean business community has made a “reconciliatory gesture” to Japan, under the newly-elected Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, after tit-for-tat retaliatory measures that have aggravated bilateral relations over the past couple of years.
Business and political sources, however, said any dramatic improvement in bilateral relations was unlikely, noting Kishida is an ally of the former hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo be who masterminded a series of trade curbs against Korean firms.
Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Chairman Chey Tae-won formally sent Kishida a congratulatory letter Sunday that addressed hope for a course change in bilateral economic cooperation.
The gesture made by the KCCI, the country's largest business lobby group, is a step ahead of the Moon Jae-in administration.
According to Cheong Wa Dae, a presidential letter congratulating the new Japanese leader was scheduled to be sent after Kishida formally took office, Monday, following his victory in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election last week.
“I expect the new prime minister to expand bilateral cooperation for a new course of government-to-government relations,” Chey, also SK Group chairman, wrote in the letter. “Entrepreneurs from the two countries will hopefully discuss measures to strengthen friendship and economic cooperation by freely visiting each other's country when the COVID-19 crisis is settled.”
He said the two were “the geographically closest neighbors that also lead in regional trade and the manufacturing sectors” and accordingly, expressed hope for them to “benchmark each other's advantages and jointly overcome challenges concerning bilateral ties.”
Separately, KCCI Executive Vice Chairman Woo Tae-hee also underlined a need for actively running multiple dialogue channels.
He noted the entrepreneurs of the two countries will “go beyond government-to-government cooperation,” as seen from the credit support in the 1960s to 70s, technology in the 80s and monetary policy in the 90s, for civic exchanges to thrive in the post-pandemic world.
Newly-elected Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, also the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is celebrated by fellow lawmakers at a general assembly of an extraordinary Parliamentary session in Tokyo, Monday. EPA-Yonhap
A researcher at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) positively assessed the KCCI chairman's letter, calling it “an attempt to make a hole for a ray of light into a darkened room.”
“The KCCI should be given credit for making a friendly gesture to Japan on behalf of Korea as a whole,” he said. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the researcher, however, speculated the new Japanese Cabinet will have numerous allies of Abe and that untangling the strained Seoul-Tokyo ties will be tough.
Kishida himself was Abe's foreign minister in 2015 when he orchestrated the deal to end a decades-long dispute over Japan's enslavement of numerous Korean women during the 1910-45 Japanese annexation of the Korean Peninsula. The deal rather deepened Korean public sentiment against Japan.
Japan delisted Korea from its list of “preferential treatment trading partners,” after the Supreme Court here ordered Japanese companies to compensate surviving Korean victims for their forced labor before and after World War II.
Ties were further worsened by trade curbs implemented as weapons against Korean hi-tech firms that relied on key chemicals produced in Japan.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruling opened the way for assets in Korea belonging to the Japanese companies to be seized.
In September this year, it ordered the first such seizure of the assets of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries after the latter refused to compensate the surviving Koreans.
“The Kishida government will definitely say the withdrawal of the court order on asset seizure must be preceded before dropping trade curbs against Korea on any path toward reconciliation,” said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Ewha Womans University. “Unfortunately, this won't happen under the Moon government considering it has been as hawkish as Abe's.”