Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and new South Korean President Lee Jae Myung agreed Monday to build stable bilateral ties amid a severe strategic environment, with both expressing hope to meet in person at an early date.
In their first telephone conversation since Lee took office last week, Ishiba and the South Korean leader also confirmed the importance of trilateral cooperation with their shared ally, the United States, the Japanese government said.
Japan and South Korea see each other as partners who can tackle global challenges, as the Asian neighbors have seen a thaw in ties long marred by issues linked to wartime history and territory, the two governments said.
During the roughly 25-minute conversation, Ishiba was quoted by the government as telling Lee he wants to advance bilateral ties, building on the "foundation" the two governments have already laid.
Ishiba sought Lee's cooperation in addressing challenges posed by North Korea, including Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Japan.
South Korea's presidential office also said that Lee and Ishiba agreed to build a "stronger and more mature Korea-Japan relationship based on mutual respect, trust and a responsible attitude."
Lee, a liberal who has taken a firm stance on the bilateral spat over wartime labor and territory, said last week as president that he places importance on consistency in bilateral relations with Japan.
After taking office following the ouster of his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, over the abrupt imposition of martial law, Lee indicated he would uphold the previous administration's approach to compensating South Korean wartime laborers.
The Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule between 1910 and 1945.
The earliest possible opportunity for an in-person summit meeting would come on the fringes of a three-day meeting of the Group of Seven nations to be held in Canada from Sunday.
Ishiba is expected to attend the summit as head of G7 member Japan, while Lee has accepted an invitation to attend the gathering as a non-member.
Japan and South Korea hope to maintain momentum in improving bilateral ties as they mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic normalization this year.
The two countries share a view on the need to deepen three-way cooperation with the United States amid growing security threats from North Korea, which is seeking closer military ties with Russia.
According to South Korea's presidential office, the two leaders expressed their "commitment" to jointly responding to various geopolitical challenges within the tripartite framework.
© KYODO
15 Comments
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obladi
an unenviable job for both of them.
SaikoPhysco
Yeah... stable ties until they destabilize again when another Politician wants to rile up his political base with calls for more war reparations.
kurisupisu
After all that pledging, Ishiba and Lee must need a holiday!
One would think that South Korea was a hostile state and that Japan has zero connection and has little to do with it.
The truth is that Japan has enormous amounts of trade with South Korea and exchange of people and ideas is also fluid.
Not only that but there are also sizable numbers of Koreans in Japan keeping Korean culture alive.
Wasabi
Good, both country must work together face the unstable US.
James Dean Jr.
Ah yes, the time-honored ritual: a 25-minute phone call, a pledge of eternal friendship, and boom — stable ties secured! Just in time for the G7 photo ops, too. One leader fresh off an election, the other fresh off declaring martial law. What could possibly go wrong? Here’s to trust, respect, and conveniently short memories.
OssanAmerica
About time SKoreans undrstood that the decades of anti-JPN sentiment did abolutely nothing for SKorea. Our resident J-hater predicted that Pres Yoon's position towards Japan would flip 180 degrees after Lee Jae Myung came into office. Nope, not happening.
HopeSpringsEternal
Stability is much needed in this chaotic world and hopefully partnership as well!
Hideyoshi.N
Good, Japan and South Korea are neighbors and many tourists enjoy each other countries very much. Good relationship is benefit to both.
isabelle
If Lee really does want good relations with Japan (and I am skeptical of his sincerity, given his long-standing anti-Japan rhetoric) he must honor the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations, and accept that reparations are now finished.
Any further compensation to victims is the responsibility of the Korean government, not Japan.
If Lee does not honor the treaty, relations will worsen.
Jim
As long as America is a close ally of Japan and South Korea, both these countries will never be able to build close relationships with other countries. It won’t benefit America so they won’t allow it to happen. Just look at Australia as few years ago their economy was thriving because of China who were their buyer of everything from beef, barley to wine. And America meddled by conspiring Australian government to develop bad relations with China and thus China put bans on beef, wine and Barley from Australia and these entire industries are on the verge of collapsing because no other country wants those products from Australia. Japan only buys bulk of its imports from America as per their agreement. America has its own beef, wine and barley. South American countries such ans Argentina and Uruguay also produces a lot of barley and beef which China switched to. The amount of products China used to buy from Australia is impossible for any other country to buy because of the large population of China. Australian Government bit the hand that was feeding them because of coziness towards America and now the local farmers, logistics industry and processing industries all suffer because of The USA. Other countries should take note and think what benefits them rather than just letting The USA dictate things!
OssanAmerica
Democratic countries can only go so far in "building a relationship" with Authoritarian dictatorships. They can trade, but they are geopolically at odds, and nations like China frequently use trade as a diplomatic weapon. The post WWII world did not evolve because theUSA "dictated" things. It evolved because many nations throughout the world made a choice, to join the Western Bloc or the Eastern Bloc. The Soviet Bloc began to crumble as the many countries no longer wanted to "have a relationship" with a country that simply took but did not give.
China requires no meddling by any country for nations to see how devious it is, it's territorial expantionist goals and agenda to dominate the region.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Yeah, if you define "other countries" as the gang of thieves led by China.
isabelle
Your post is astonishingly inaccurate: the opposite of the actual situation.
The US is trying to get South Korea and Japan closer together to better guard against China and North Korea. SK/Japan arguing is bad for US interests (and Korean and Japanese ones), not good.
No, Australia called for a transparent investigation into COVID. The CCP threw a fit, as it wants to hide its key role in the deaths and sickening of millions, and started a trade war.
But this backfired: Australia diversified its markets, whilst China suffered blackouts and rising prices. Then, China came crawling back.
...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-18/has-chinas-trade-war-with-australia-really-ended/102233666
With critical shortages of coal two years ago, much of regional China faced crippling blackouts during one of the harshest winters on record.
Like most fungible commodities, Australian exporters simply moved to other markets as India, Japan and South Korea picked up the slack.
Exports to Japan more than doubled while South Korea and India lifted their purchases by around 72 per cent each.
Cephus
Peace to all men/women of goodwill!!
Peter14
Seems this comment is riddled with a poor imagination mixed with false declarations making it a steaming pile of cow dung.
Chinese poor relations with Australia stemmed from some very bad and hasty decisions out of Beijing, thinking it could use trade as a stick to force Australia to make decisions China approved of. This failed on all levels. The Australian public agreed that China banned selected Australian products and that Australia would alter nothing to appease China. Trade on these select items all but stopped with China, forcing Australia to secure new markets, which it did successfully blunting any impact from China. Australia also raised prices on staples China could not halt trading in like Iron ore, and the total exports to China grew in dollar terms even with China's one sided trade war. China backed down with a change in Australia's government providing the face saving needed for China to resume trade in a normal manner again. China accomplished nothing except inflicting power cuts on Chinese during winters without Australian coal and with reduced purchases of Australian LNG.
Nothing collapsed in Australia, nothing was achieved by China expect the world took notice that Australia stood up to China and won.
None of this had anything to do with America, but China loves to point fingers at the US at every opportunity and lay the blame for China's ills at the feet of the USA rather than the CCP.
Aussie trade goods that China banned were sold instead to many new markets rather than just one, and Tasmanian lobster prices became much more affordable for Australian consumers so we all thanked China for their error. Again the US had nothing to do with China making such a stupid one sided trade war decision. China tried to bite the hand that feeds it and keeps it warm and it got frostbite for its efforts. Pro China shills still trying to claim a victory out of its humiliation. Dont mess with Australia, we supply things you cant get from anywhere else and in the volumes we supply.