South Korea and Japan will have more potential for conflicts this year and next year, and a bilateral effort to work out the solutions to these possible conflicts would be a key task for the two neighboring countries that often have icy relationship, South Korea's Ambassador to Japan Kwon Chul-hyun said.
In a meeting with Korean journalists in Tokyo Friday, Kwon said this year Japan will decide on the final draft of the high school text book guidelines, which have been blamed by South Korea for whitewashing its brutal colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula, while the next year will mark the 100th year anniversary of the annexation of the Korean Peninsula by Japan, a very emotional issue for Koreans, Yonhap reported.
Accordingly, Kwon said, the Korean Embassy in Japan this year will primarily focus on managing these possible conflicts and assist the Korean companies doing business in Japan amid the global financial crisis.
Commenting on the recent visit to Korea by Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, Kwon said, “Prime Minister Aso pointed out that the combined GDP total of the three East Asian countries, namely, South Korea, Japan, China, surpasses that of the U.K., France and Germany combined. Therefore, Aso believes that the cooperation of the three Asian countries can contribute to the world economic recovery and growth,” adding “For this to be possible, Aso thinks the close cooperation between Korea and Japan is critical.”