ED Seoul, Tokyo look to future

President Lee Jae Myung shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Nara Prefecture, Japan, Tuesday. Yonhap

The second Korea-Japan summit between President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was held not in Tokyo, but in Nara, Takaichi’s hometown and electoral district. There, she greeted Lee with a gracious smile, proud to show where she comes from. The warm reception set the tone for the summit that would be forward-looking, with stress on economic cooperation and reinforcing both bilateral and trilateral ties with the United States amid a volatile world order.

North Korea issues figured prominently where the two leaders agreed to closely cooperate on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and on North Korea policy. The two also realized the vital importance of trilateral cooperation with the United States. To touch upon historical aspects, often a source of friction between the two nations, the leaders agreed to pursue DNA testing on remains recovered last year from a former undersea mine site in western Japan where 183 Korean and Japanese workers died in a flood in 1942.

The reaffirmation of their cooperative relationship at the summit should go some way to defusing the tensions in the region. Tensions between China and Japan have risen after Takaichi’s comments last November that Japan could consider military action if a Chinese attack on Taiwan threatened Japan’s survival. During the Seoul-Beijing summit last week, President Xi Jinping told Lee, "We must firmly stand on the right side of history and make the correct strategic choices." The remark was essentially a thinly veiled call for Seoul to pick a side. China then imposed an export ban on rare materials with potential dual-use applications to Japan. Lee emphasized that Korea’s relationship with Japan is as important as its ties with China, signaling his commitment to a strategy of "pragmatic diplomacy."

The two leaders in Nara were aware of this backdrop. Before beginning the expanded talks, Takaichi said that Japan will "work with President Lee and cooperate to play a role in stabilizing the region." Lee, in response, acknowledged that "Cooperation between South Korea and Japan is more important than ever," amid a complicated world order.

Lee struck a forward-looking view, even as he acknowledged the past issues broadly. "While we share painful experiences from the past, it has now been 60 years since the normalization of Korea-Japan relations," he said, noting that the summit carries a special meaning in opening "a new chapter toward the next 60 years."

Lee’s trip to Nara marked his fifth time meeting with a Japanese leader since taking office. Such a demonstration — that bilateral ties between Seoul and Tokyo are supported by a near-systematic diplomatic practice — signals a higher degree of stability for a region overshadowed by the broader China‑U.S. strategic rivalry.

What's especially notable is that aside from cooperating on artificial intelligence and intellectual property, Takaichi noted that the two sides shared the view that cooperation should move beyond trade-centered engagement and expand into more comprehensive collaboration. Such an aim could be facilitated if the two nations could narrow their differences for South Korea to gain support from Japan to join the Japan-led Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

In terms of security, Korea and Japan have watched as U.S. military action in Venezuela — leading to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro — has raised questions about Washington’s strategic priorities and destabilized an already uncertain global order. By vowing to also step up trilateral cooperation with the United States, Lee and Takaichi rightly hold their alliance partner the U.S. in the trilateral framework for the region's stability. Strong trilateral cooperation could also help counterbalance the growing threats posed by the increasingly close military partnership between North Korea and Russia.

Both South Korea and Japan now must ensure that pragmatic steps will ensue afterward, with forward-looking viewpoints to serve mutual interests that can also function as a stabilizing force in the region.