Lee Min-hyung joined The Korea Times in 2014 and has worked as a journalist mainly in Korea’s finance, tech and automotive industry. He specializes in content creation, breaking news and in-depth analysis currently on transportation and mobility. You can reach him via mhlee@koreatimes.co.kr.
Lawmakers fail to find breakthrough in Seoul-Tokyo political row
By Lee Min-hyung
National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang
By Lee Min-hyung
Lawmakers from Seoul and Tokyo reiterated their vastly different views on the issue of compensation of wartime forced labor victims during their recent meeting in the Japanese capital.
With the dialogue ending up in a de facto failure, the outlook is not good for an early end to diplomatic frictions between South Korea and Japan.
National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang initially had a hectic schedule planned for his four-day trip to Japan, which started Sunday. However, he decided to cancel most of his activities and minimize the number of members of his entourage, as chances appeared slim that he would achieve any breakthroughs through talks with Japanese politicians, according to the Assembly.
“Moon decided to reorganize his entourage without lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties,” the Assembly said in a statement. He also delayed his departure to Tokyo from Sunday morning to the afternoon.
He plans to participate in only a few official activities there, which includes giving a special lecture to students at Waseda University under the theme, “A proposal to restore future-oriented relations between South Korea and Japan.”
The decision to downscale the delegation came after reflection on the recent trip to Tokyo made by a group of South Korean lawmakers, led by Rep. Kang Chang-il of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea who also heads the Korea-Japan Parliamentarians' Union (KJPU). The delegation met with their Japanese counterparts to discuss a possible breakthrough in their deepening political dispute but the meetings ended up generating little progress.
The representatives from both countries, however, only reaffirmed their differences over the issue. After having talks on Friday, they released a joint statement, urging South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to hold a summit as soon as possible to stop bilateral relations from worsening.
The meeting also sparked controversy here, as Abe did not send any congratulatory messages for the 42nd joint congress of the KJPU and the Japan-Korea Parliamentarians' Association, even if South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon delivered a message to celebrate the event.
The political friction between the two is centered on Seoul's Supreme Court ruling last year which ordered Japanese companies compensate surviving Korean victims of wartime forced labor. Japan has since expressed its strong opposition against the ruling, reiterating that the compensation issue was settled after both sides signed the 1965 treaty.