Korea on Monday called for Japan's incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to make efforts to mend strained ties with its neighbors, a senior official said, responding cautiously to the victory of Abe who is expected to keep a hawkish stance on territorial issues.
Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is set to return to power after securing a lopsided victory on Sunday and many analysts have warned that bilateral relations with Korea could get worse if he becomes Japan's next prime minister.
"With regard to the outcome of Japan's general election, we expect the Liberal Democratic Party to put an emphasis on improving relations with its neighboring countries," said a senior official at Seoul's foreign ministry.
"Also, we hope South Korea and Japan will jointly contribute to promoting peace and prosperity in the region," the official said on the condition of anonymity.
Relations between South Korea and Japan have been strained since President Lee Myung-bak made a visit to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo in August, the first by a South Korean president, and Japan strongly protested the move and renewed its claim to the East Sea islets.
Separately, Japan has been locked in a bitter dispute with China over a set of islets in the East China Sea.
Korean officials have warned Japan against shifting to the right, saying Seoul will maintain its vigilance against any confrontational attempts by Tokyo on territorial and other issues.
Abe, who had served as Japan's prime minister from 2006 to 2007, angered South Korea and China in October this year after paying a visit to the Yasukuni Shrine that glorifies Japan's militarist past.
While cautiously responding to the return of Abe as Japan's leader, the foreign ministry official also gave a guarded hope of improving ties between the two nations.
"For the time being, we are taking a wait-and-see mode and looking to communicate with Japan's new government, while maintain a firm stance over history-related issues," the official said.
"Any action from Japan that runs counter to the correct understanding of history will have an adverse effect on relations with neighbors including Korea and China and the image of Japan in the international community," he said.
While the official was cautious about the return of Abe, some analysts in Seoul sounded an alarm over a further deterioration of bilateral ties as a result.
Jin Chang-soo, head of research division on Japan at the Sejong Institute, a private think tank, said, "The LDP introduced many rightward pledges during this election, so the Korea-Japan relations will be very difficult in the future."
In particular, Abe's LDP campaigned to revise a 1993 apology the country's then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono issued for the forced sex slavery of women during Japanese colonization.
Historians say up to 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, were forced into sexual slavery for Japan's World War II soldiers.
South Korea has pressed Japan to provide compensation and extend a formal apology to the victims but Tokyo refuses to do so, saying the matter was settled by a 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries. (Yonhap)