Moon, Abe agree on need to improve ties

President Moon Jae-in, left, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before their summit at Shangri-La Hotel in Chengdu, China, Tuesday. Yonhap

By Do Je-hae

• Published Dec 24, 2019 6:25 PM KST
• Updated Dec 25, 2019 10:02 AM KST

No immediate progress on wartime forced labor dispute

By Do Je-hae

CHENGDU ― President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to improve bilateral relations during a rare summit meeting Tuesday. The South Korean leader also underlined his resolute stance that Japan must rescind its trade restrictions against Korea imposed on July 1.

Although the two countries remained wide apart on the wartime forced labor issue, the key point of contention, the summit was still useful in that the two countries reached a consensus on the need for diplomacy to sort out bilateral problems, according to Cheong Wa Dae.

Tension has been building up particularly after Japan implemented export restrictions in July and removed Korea from its “whitelist” of trusted trading partners in August. But things have been looking up slightly in recent weeks, with Tokyo removing some of the export regulations ahead of the summit. “President Moon asked for Abe's special attention and determination in returning Japan's export regulations to the level before July 1,” presidential spokeswoman Ko Min-jung said in a press briefing after the summit. “Abe said he hopes to resolve the issue in the future through consultations among export authorities of the two countries.”

The two leaders also discussed the forced labor issue, but were not able to narrow their differences, according to the presidential office. “They did agree on the need for resolution through dialogue. In particular, they shared the view that the issue needs to be resolved soon and that they need to meet more often.” Given Abe's reluctance to meet with Moon over the past year, the resumption of their summit diplomacy in China has been seen as a positive sign for picking up bilateral relations. The meeting was initially scheduled for 30 minutes, but ended up taking 15 minutes longer. “Through this summit, the two leaders noted on how important such meeting is and how important it is to solve the problems through dialogue. That is why this meeting is very meaningful,” a presidential aide said.

According to international reports, Abe reiterated his position that it falls on Korea to take the first step in resolving the historical dispute over a ruling regarding compensation for the surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor. "South Korea should take responsibility and come up with measures to resolve the issue," Abe was quoted as saying in a press conference. "I asked that South Korea initiate steps to restore ties between Japan and South Korea to a healthy state."

Focus on 'future-oriented cooperation'

The first official Moon-Abe summit in 15 months is expected to serve as an important occasion to lift bilateral relations out of the worst strain in decades. “I believe the Korea-Japan summit with Prime Minister Abe represented very useful progress. I hope the summit gave hope to the peoples of the two countries,” Moon said in a social media message posted on his way back to Seoul on Christmas Eve. “It is important to face the past, but we must also continue to develop future-oriented cooperation.”

On the sidelines of a trilateral meeting in the southwestern Chinese tech hub, Moon underlined in his summit with Abe that the two countries were indispensable to one another culturally and historically. Based on such “inseparable” ties, Moon expressed his wish for the two countries to overcome the current difficulties in their relationship. “Japan and Korea are most important neighbors historically and culturally. Our trade and people-to-people exchanges make our partnership all the more important,” Moon said at the start of their meeting, according to press pool reports. “There can be temporary inconveniences in our relationships, but we cannot be drawn apart for good.”

The South Korean leader said he was well aware of the “global expectations” toward his summit with the Japanese leader. The two leaders met briefly early last month in Bangkok on the sidelines of an event hosted by ASEAN. But this was not an official summit meeting. “To resolve pending issues between the two countries, I think the best way is to get together and have frank discussions. During our last meeting in Bangkok, the prime minister and I reaffirmed the principle that pending bilateral relations between Korea and Japan should be resolved through dialogue. Discussions are underway between the two countries' diplomatic and export authorities. We look forward to working out a wise solution as soon as possible,” Moon said.

Abe also acknowledged the need to improve bilateral relations and recognized that the two countries need each other. ”Japan and Korea are important neighbors to each other. And cooperation between Japan and South Korea, and Japan, South Korea and the United States is very important for security issues. I wish to continue to improve the important Japan-Korea relations, and I hope to have a very frank exchange of views today,” the Japanese leader said.

Abe's mention of Japan-South Korea-U.S. trilateral cooperation is considered to reflect his administration's focus on the need to maintain a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact. Seoul was about to abandon the pact initially after the Tokyo removed Seoul from its list of trusted trading partners in August, but changed the decision recently to keep the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) on the condition that Tokyo cancels its trade restrictions imposed since July.

It was the first time for the leaders of the two neighboring countries to sit down for an official summit since September 2018 at the United Nations General Assembly. The long absence of summit diplomacy has been seen to reflect the significant strain in bilateral relations resulting from the October 2018 Supreme Court ruling on forced labor of Koreans at Japanese companies during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

During their last summit in New York, Moon expounded on the need to dissolve a foundation for the victims of wartime sexual slavery, the main outcome of a bilateral agreement to resolve the historical issue. Since then, Abe has refused to meet with Moon unless Seoul brings a solution acceptable to them with regard to the 2018 court ruling, and has maintained that the ruling defies a 1965 treaty that normalized Korea-Japan relations.