Leaders praise latest bilateral summit as a success

Before leaving for Tokyo on Monday, the Japanese prime minister said he now has a deeper relationship with President Yoon. However, the Democratic Party has expressed their disappointment, especially noting that Kishida failed to express remorse.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, shows Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida the gift he received from U.S. President Joe Biden during his visit to Washington last week on Sunday night. Yoon and Kishida had a private dinner at the presidential residence in Hannam-dong. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

President Yoon Suk Yeol has ordered his Cabinet to follow up on cooperation with Japan in national security, industry, science and technology, as well as in culture and exchanges between the young people of both countries.

The announcement was made through presidential spokesman Lee Do-woon a day after President Yoon met with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida on Sunday, the first visit by a Japanese prime minister to Seoul for a bilateral summit in 12 years.

The meeting came just two months after President Yoon was invited to Tokyo in late March and less than a week since returning from Washington as a state guest.

Both Yoon and Kishida are expected to hold another meeting when the Korean president visits Hiroshima later this month during the G-7 meeting along with U.S. President Joe Biden. Yoon has been invited as an observer, the third Korean president to have been so invited.

The Korean president’s office and the Japanese prime minister’s office consider the latest meeting a success.

Hirokazu Matsuno, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary and government spokesperson, said the meeting between Yoon and Kishida on Sunday confirmed that the summit was a move toward normalizing the frayed relationship between the two countries.

“Last night’s summit has further deepened the trust between the two leaders and at the same time confirmed the smooth progress of vitalizing dialogue between the two governments,” Matsuno said on Monday. “The two countries have decided to further advance the relationship through close communication.”

Before leaving for Tokyo on Monday, the Japanese prime minister said he now has a deeper relationship with President Yoon.

The two had dinner at the presidential residence in Hannam-dong after the press conference on Sunday.

“I hope to open a new era where trust with Yoon is strengthened and our power is joined together,” Kishida said.

The president’s office stressed that comments made by the Japanese prime minister regarding his thoughts on Korean victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor were his own, not a response to demands from Seoul.

“When our president visited Japan in March, he expressed a forward-looking position not because the Japanese government made such a request or demand,” a presidential official said. “He did it because it was the least our government could do to improve the relationship between the two countries.”

He added, “I think it was the same for the Japanese prime minister.”

The official stressed that the Korean government made no official demands of the Japanese government.

During the press conference Sunday, Kishida said, “My heart aches for the many people who had to work under a harsh environment at the time and suffered pain and sadness,” seemingly referring to forced labor victims.

Kishida’s comment was considered a step beyond his previous comments in March, when he said he upholds the historical understanding of past Japanese governments, including the landmark 1998 declaration by then-Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi that acknowledged the “tremendous damage and suffering” Japan inflicted on Koreans during the colonial period.

However, critics — including Democratic Party (DP) politicians — have expressed their disappointment, especially noting that Kishida failed to express remorse.

The DP accused Yoon of bowing to Japan.

“We cannot move forward by selling out our past,” DP Chair Lee Jae-myung said Monday. “The government prides itself on restoring ‘shuttle diplomacy,’ but it should listen to the people’s criticism that, unfortunately, it was more like ‘bread shuttle’ diplomacy.”

“Bread shuttle” is a form of school bullying where dominant students order weaker students to buy and serve them bread and other pastries from the school store.

“There was no mention of reviewing the compensation for forced labor,” Lee said. “President Yoon has not said a single word about Japan’s plundering of the Dokdo islets, even receiving criticism that he subordinated Korea’s diplomatic and military sovereignty to Japan’s Indo-Pacific strategy.”

“It seems [Yoon] is exactly following the unspoken demands from the Japanese,” Lee said, adding that Korea is doing everything to appease the Japanese while Korea gets nothing in return.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]