ed Seoul-Tokyo dialogue

Summit is impossible unless Japan acts on comfort women iss

ue

The strategic dialogue between South Korea and Japan in Tokyo on Wednesday ended with no progress made on pending bilateral issues, including disputes over history. Nevertheless, the meeting between Seoul’s First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong and his Japanese counterpart Akitaka Saiki was meaningful because it was the first strategic dialogue to take place between the neighboring nations since President Park Geun-hye took office in February 2013.

The meeting is also a reminder that relations between the governments of both nations have been at their worst ever in recent years and are moving toward improvement, albeit gradually.

During the talks, Cho called for Japan to make sincere efforts to heal the scars of history in order to bring about future-oriented bilateral relations. The Japanese diplomat, in response, asked South Korea to be more forward-looking on historical issues, including the imperial Japanese army’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II.

While no progress was reported from the Tokyo meeting, it’s a relief that the two countries agreed to continue discussing the so-called comfort women issue through subsequent working-level negotiations.

The meeting also drew attention because Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed to hold a summit with President Park in mid-September via his special envoy Yoshihiro Mori on the sidelines of international conferences in October or November. What was discussed regarding this issue was not known immediately, but it’s little surprise that they failed to reach an agreement, given that Tokyo has not taken any sincere action toward resolving historical issues, a demand that Seoul set as a precondition for the bilateral summit.

What’s clear is that recent signs of a diplomatic thaw are welcomed, especially ahead of the 70th anniversary of normalizing diplomatic ties next year. This is obviously because the Japanese share an understanding of the need to improve relations.

Given this, there is no reason for them not to reach a consensus on historical issues. In particular, Seoul and Tokyo might find a clue to breaking the diplomatic logjam by addressing the issue of wartime sexual enslavement preemptively.

Of course, there are no expectations of an early settlement on that issue, given that the two countries are poles apart in their points of view. What’s more, Japan under the conservative leader Abe has been moving to retract the 1993 Kono Statement that acknowledged and apologized for the military forces of imperial Japan coercing Korean and other Asian women into sexual enslavement.

As it stands, President Park can ill afford to accept Abe’s request for the summit as long as Japan sticks to its position on historical disputes, especially the comfort women issue. She could take the brunt of the political backlash if she compromises principles for short-term gains.

Its’ for this reason that we hope that Japan will take proactive action with respect to the issue of sexual slavery. This will pave the way for the two countries to get their strained relationship back on track. We expect the diplomatic authorities in both Seoul and Tokyo to come up with creative ideas to spur further movement toward this objective.