Seoul, Tokyo escalate diplomatic tension

From left are Kim Yong-kil, director-general for Northeast Asian affairs at the South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Kenji Kanasugi, director-general for the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs bureau. / Yonhap

By Lee Min-hyung

Seoul and Tokyo are escalating diplomatic tensions, with both sides showing any sign of coming to terms on conflicting agendas, such as the former's recent court ruling ordering a Japanese firm to pay compensation for South Korean workers forced to work during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

To deal with the mounting conflict, both sides on Monday held a director-level meeting to narrow their differences on sensitive diplomatic issues. Kim Yong-kil, director-general for Northeast Asian affairs at the South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met with his counterpart, Kenji Kanasugi, director-general for the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs bureau.

This is the first time both countries have held face-to-face negotiations over Seoul's Oct. 30 Supreme Court ruling. At that time, the court ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Tokyo to pay compensation to South Korean forced labors during the colonial era.

The Japanese government reacted fiercely to the ruling, calling it an obvious “violation of international law.” It cited a Seoul-Tokyo treaty in 1965, saying the treaty settled any compensation issues regarding its wartime atrocities against Korea.

But the South's foreign ministry is in a position to continue urging its Japanese counterpart to accept the court ruling.

Given Tokyo's furious reaction to the ruling, expectations are that both sides will not be able to reach a consensus in a near future. Chances are also slim for Seoul to make any concessions on the issue, as the nation still feels emotional about the bitter wartime history.

The bilateral conflict reached its peak on Thursday when Seoul and Tokyo were on the brink of military conflict in the East Sea. Japan claimed a South Korean destroyer aimed a radar at a P-1 patrol aircraft of the country's Maritime Self-Defense Force.

The South Korean vessel was on a humanitarian mission in the sea to rescue a North Korean wooden ship that went adrift due to weather conditions.

“Usually, it is irregular for any country's military aircraft to fly at low altitudes over a naval ship of another country, so our destroyer monitored the movement of the aircraft,” a military official said Monday.

The Ministry of National Defense in the South argues the vessel did not make any provocative gestures toward the aircraft.

But the incident has drawn strong backlash from Japan, with the country saying the radar posed a serious military threat.

The defense ministry said it would continue correcting facts regarding the incident by communicating via various diplomatic channels.

“Defense and diplomatic authorities from the two countries will hold continuous negotiations over the issue. The foreign ministry's director-level meeting was arranged against this backdrop,” the official said.

The latest military dispute, however, invited more than fierce reactions from Japan, with the country demanding South Korea make a sincere apology over the incident and promise not to do it again.

Meanwhile, the Japanese diplomat also met with Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs of the South's foreign ministry, to discuss the ongoing peace momentum on the peninsula.