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| President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida / AFP-Yonhap |
By Nam Hyun-woo
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will send a diplomatic delegation to Japan next week, two weeks after his first group of emissaries to the United States returned to Seoul after wrapping up their meetings with government officials and think tank experts.
This is seen as an indication of Yoon's diplomatic goal of mending Seoul's ties with Tokyo and improving trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan particularly to counter North Korea's escalating missile and nuclear threats.
Yoon's spokesperson Bae Hyun-jin said Sunday that Yoon will send a delegation comprised of seven diplomats and scholars to Japan on April 24. After meeting their counterparts at Japan's foreign ministry, National Diet and academia, they will return home on April 28.
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| National Assembly Vice Speaker Chung Jin-suk / Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-keun |
"The delegation will visit Japan in order to consult with their Japanese counterparts over policies related to North Korea and South Korea-Japan relations," Bae said. "We expect the delegation will play their role in laying the framework for South Korea-Japan cooperation in North Korea policies and addressing other bilateral issues after the Yoon administration is inaugurated."
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| President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's spokesperson, Bae Hyun-jin, speaks during a press conference at the presidential transition committee in Tongui-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, Sunday. Joint Press Corps |
Japan will be the second country to which Yoon will send a diplomatic delegation. A separate delegation led by PPP Rep. Park Jin visited the U.S. from April 3 to 11.
Seoul's ties with Tokyo has turned sour after Japan restricted Seoul-bound exports of key industrial materials in 2019, in an apparent retaliation against a 2018 Korean Supreme Court ruling that awarded compensation to laborers forced to work for a Japanese company during World War II.
During his campaign, Yoon promised friendlier ties with Japan, setting the 1998 joint declaration between then-leaders President Kim Dae-jung and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi as the base of his diplomatic policies on Japan.
In the declaration, Obuchi expressed his "deep remorse and heartfelt apology" over Japan's colonial rule of Korea and the two leaders promised to discuss the future of bilateral relations in order to build a new partnership. Experts said the Seoul-Tokyo relations were amicable amid the declaration.
In a phone call with Yonhap News Agency after the announcement, Rep. Chung said "the two countries need to look directly into the historical facts and build a future-oriented relation, which is tantamount to the Kim-Obuchi declaration."
"Yoon believes South Korea-Japan relations were impaired and left unattended, and restoring the ties is helpful for (South Korea's) national interest," Chung said.
Yoon's move to designate Japan as one of Seoul's diplomatic priorities is also in line with his principle of strengthening Seoul's alliance with Washington.
Under the Moon Jae-in administration, the U.S. has been expressing its intention for a trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo to counter North Korea's threats and China's assertion, but any efforts have been shaky as South Korea and Japan continue to lock horns over historical issues.
As Yoon places increased priority on Japan, chances have increased for strategic cooperation between the three countries.
Sending the delegation to Japan also signals that Yoon is taking steps closer to the U.S. in terms of the rivalry between Washington and Beijing. According to Yoon's aides, there is no fixed schedule on sending delegations to countries other than the U.S. and Japan, meaning it is uncertain whether the president-elect will send his envoys to China before he takes office on May 10.
President Moon Jae-in, who was inaugurated without a transition period, sent special envoys to the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and the EU months after he took office. Moon's predecessor Park Geun-hye sent delegations to the U.S. and China when she was president-elect, and Park's predecessor Lee Myung-bak sent delegations to the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
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