Moon urges efforts to outdo Japan

President Moon Jae-in presides over a meeting with his senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap

By Do Je-hae

President Moon Jae-in continued to hit back at Japan's growing trade offensive against South Korea, stressing that attempts to impede the country's growth will fail.

“Japan can never get in the way of our economic leap,” Moon said at the start of a weekly meeting with senior presidential secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae, according to a press pool report, Monday afternoon. “If anything, it will only stimulate our determination to become an economic superpower.”

The President said South Korea will use Tokyo's export restrictions as an opportunity to reduce the country's reliance on Japan in some business sectors. For this, the President urged businesses and the South Korean public to shift their focus to not just “overcoming” Tokyo's “economic retaliation,” but “outdoing” Japan.

“We need a larger perspective and an exceptional determination,” Moon said. The removal of Korea from the so-called whitelist sparked a huge backlash from the South Korean public and concerns from related industries, not to mention escalating the bilateral tension already suffering from a range of disputes regarding the two countries' shared wartime history and security issues.

In addition, Moon called on Japan to be more responsible regarding historical issues and behave like a global leader. “The international community is also very critical of Japan's actions which deteriorate and hurt the free trade order,” Moon said. “We urge Japan to remember that economic power alone cannot establish a global leadership position.”

It was the second time for Moon to publicly condemn Japan since a rare live emergency Cabinet meeting on Aug. 2, the day Tokyo announced its Cabinet decision to remove Korea from its list of 27 preferential trading partners receiving simplified export processing.

To deal with the impact of the trade war with Japan, Moon proposed a wide range of policies aimed at reviving economic vitality and promoting innovation in future industries.

“Thanks to the second venture boom, innovative startups have gained speed and we have been able to commercialize 5G for the first time in the world,” Moon said. He also noted the considerable growth in new industries, such as electric and hydrogen cars and bio-health.

One of the ways we can catch up with Japan is to expedite inter-Korean economic cooperation, Moon said.

“If a peace economy is realized through inter-Korean cooperation, we will be able to swiftly catch up with Japan,” he said, adding that South Korea should not abandon this goal just because of the difficulties in inter-Korean relations and U.S-North Korea relations as it is the key to co-prosperity.

Due to the mounting tension, the leaders of Korea and Japan have not been able to hold a bilateral summit for some time. But some expectations are that there would be an annually held trilateral summit between the leaders of South Korea, Japan and China which could lead to a possible diplomatic breakthrough.

Cheong Wa Dae confirmed that arrangements were underway. “The trilateral summit is a routine meeting of the leaders of the three countries, and at this point, we are coordinating the timing,” presidential spokesperson Ko Min-jung said during a regular briefing.

The three leaders gathered in Japan for the 2018 summit. Amid the escalating bilateral tension, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has shunned talks with President Moon, as seen in his snub of the Korean leader during the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan.