President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will hold a summit Monday, as initially proposed by Seoul. It was only after this page went to the press that the two governments announced it officially, however, forcing us to quote Japanese broadcasters. That and protracted wrangling over the date and agenda indicates a fierce war-of-nerves going on between the two sides.
Which augurs ill for the satisfactory outcome of the bilateral summit, the first in three-and-a-half years.
President Park was right to decide to resume the three-nation summit, also suspended for years due mainly to tension between China and Japan, and have a one-on-one meeting with her Japanese counterpart on the sidelines of the trilateral conference.
We want to believe the Korean leader’s moves result from her resolve to take the initiative in regional diplomacy by reconciling the nation’s two larger neighbors, not merely pressed to do so by the United States that wants its two East Asian allies to mend their strained relationship. Tokyo’s initial denial of the date offered by Seoul was regrettable in this regard as reflecting its arrogance.
Seoul has even refrained from demanding Tokyo to address historical problems, including the “comfort women” issue, as a precondition for the summit, just expressing its hope for greater sincerity on the part of the latter.
That should never mean, however, that Prime Minister Abe can get away doing nothing about the thorny issue, not expressing regrets, let alone an apology, and/or offering to cooperate to ease the sufferings of women forced to work in Japanese military brothels before and during World War II. This shows why all eyes are on the ongoing working-group talks between the two governments on how they should remove the biggest stumbling stock in the way to restoring their ties.
We also believe in the “two-track” approach in dealing with Japan, which calls for separating historical issues from present ones, such as cooperation in security and economic areas. Still there will be clear limitations to what Seoul can do without fundamentally solving this ethical and humanitarian issue. Few Koreans would accept any compromise worse than the agreement ― unofficially reached under the former Lee Myung-bak administration but never materialized ― which calls for the Japanese premier to write letters to victims and compensate for them with government money.
Nothing could be more self-contradictory if Prime Minister Abe, who has made it clear he would inherit the “Kono Statement,” which acknowledged the Japanese government’s responsibility and atonement, does not turn it into action. Such discordance between Tokyo’s words and acts forces foreigners to doubt whether Japan could emerge as a credible global leader, as they did when the Japanese government threatened to suspend financial contributions to UNESCO when it recently included it in the Memory of the World’s Register.
Tokyo argues Seoul is using comfort women as an excuse to move closer to Beijing. Such an argument is only half right. It is Japan that is pushing Korea to China by denying historical facts and refusing to take moral responsibility. However, few governments ― except maybe Tokyo ― would use elderly victims of inhumane war crimes for political and diplomatic purposes.
The success of upcoming summit relies on how Abe does in Seoul, just like the overall bilateral relationship depends on Tokyo’s behavior.