Korea-Japan Relationship

Since Shinzo Abe administration, relations between South Korea and Japan have sunk to their worst level in years due to Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shirine in Tokyo and other indications that the country is moving to the right.

The second director-level meeting on the issue of sexual slavery victims - so-called “comfort women” - will be held in Tokyo, Japan in mid May. There is much attention toward not only whether both sides would find common ground on the issue, but also they would agree on formalization of high-level bilateral talk.

High-level officials from S. Korea and Japan held talks on April 16th, 2014 on resolving their decades-old differences over Korean “comfort women.” The inaugural meeting ended with S. Korea and Japan reaffirming their basic stances. They only agreed to hold monthly high-level talks on the comfort women issue. Because both stood at very different standpoints, it is unknown that how they can narrow the gap at the second meeting.

Right after the inaugural meeting, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade held hearing meetings with the war victim groups. Their demand did not much deviate from the original demand: Legal liability and sincere apology of Japanese Government. No tangible achievement on the issue is anticipated in a short period of time, thus the meeting rather may lead to improvement of their bilateral relationship arrangement.

At the first meeting, both side already agreed to invigorate the working level, director level and vice-minister-level talks. With the first director-level meeting as a momentum, Korea and Japan agreed to run diplomatic channels. They both shared the opinion that the issues should be settled soon in order to improve the strained relationship caused by the Abe administration’s insensitivities on the issues of Dokdo islets, comfort women and the Yasukuni Shrine. .

U.S. President Barack Obama emphasized the importance of trilateral security cooperation and demanded for their fence-mending during his visit to Korea and Japan. His opinion would have high influence on the next director level meeting. According to a Korean official, “All kinds of issues between Korea and Japan already have been handled at a meeting before. Thus if Japan bring up issues besides comfort women, then we would listen.”

Some express concerns that diversification of agenda of the meeting may dilute the original goal: comfort women issue settlement. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is conscious of the situation. Thus an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that they would handle various issues of bilateral relations but would focus on the comfort women issue settlement.