Japan and South Korea agreed on May 2 to resume finance ministers’ talks that had been stalled for seven years, in the latest sign of thawing ties between the two nations strained by wartime disputes.
South Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho and his Japanese counterpart, Shunichi Suzuki, met on the sidelines of the annual Asian Development Bank (ADB) summit in the South Korean city of Incheon.
“[As the two countries] consider free trade and market system to be the key of their economic management, there are many areas in which the two governments and the private sectors can join forces,” Choo said.
The minister suggested that South Korea and Japan expand cooperation in semiconductors, space, and biotechnology. Choo said the two nations could cooperate to address low birth rates.
Suzuki said he intends to enhance bilateral financial relations with South Korea so that both nations can work together to address global economic challenges.
“South Korea and Japan are important neighbors that need to cooperate to address various tasks of the global economy, as well as the regional and international society,” Suzuki told reporters.
The announcement came ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s two-day visit to South Korea on April 30, which could mark a resumption of shuttle diplomacy between leaders of both nations.
South Korea-Japan ‘Complete Normalization’
The two countries agreed on “the complete normalization” of a military intelligence-sharing pact during the summit in March. Kishida said he hoped to “open a new chapter” in the relations between South Korea and Japan by resuming bilateral visits “without being bound by formality.”Yoon had signaled his wish to improve the relationship between Japan and South Korea after he was elected last year.
At a ceremony to commemorate South Korea’s independence from Japanese rule on March 1, instead of asking for an apology from Japan, as previous South Korean presidents had done on that date, Yoon signaled a willingness to work with Japan.
“Today, Japan has transformed from a militaristic colonizing power in the past to South Korea’s important regional partner that shares the same values and can work together on the issues of security, trade, and global affairs,” he said in his speech.
Yoon said that he believes that in the context of the current geopolitical shuffle in northeast Asia, it’s important to change the previous strategy of maintaining a balance between the United States and China and to join the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific strategy.
The two countries’ relations have been hampered by historical disputes, including the forced labor of Koreans by Japanese companies during Japan’s 1910–1945 colonial rule of Korea and the exploitation of Korean women in Japanese military-run brothels.
In 2018, the South Korean Supreme Court ruled in favor of compensation by Japanese companies that benefitted from forced labor. However, Japan argued that all compensation issues had been resolved under a 1965 treaty between the two nations.
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