South Korea seems determined to ease its relations with Japan in the face of tensions with Pyongyang. For this, the government announced a plan to compensate its nationals who were victims of forced labor during the war in Japan on Monday, March 6. The South Korean Foreign Minister, Park Jin, thus indicated the creation of a South Korean foundation to compensate the victims and their families, but without direct Japanese involvement. He said he "hopes that Japan will respond positively to our major decision today, with voluntary contributions from Japanese companies and a full apology."
Both South Korea and Japan are key regional security allies of the United States against North Korea. But their bilateral relations have long been strained due to Tokyo's colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945. According to data provided by Seoul, about 780,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced labor by Japan during the 35 years of occupation, not to mention the women reduced to sexual slavery by Japanese troops.
In Japan, media outlets previously reported that companies may make voluntary donations, while Tokyo is expected to express remorse over the forced labor issue, as it has done in the past. Tokyo insists that a treaty in 1965 — which allowed the two countries to restore diplomatic ties and win reparations worth around $800 million in grants and cheap loans — settled all claims between the two countries regarding the colonial period.
The Seoul government's new plan calls for a local foundation to accept donations from large South Korean companies - which benefited from reparations granted by Japan in 1965 - to compensate the victims. The minister considered this historic agreement essential to improve ties between Tokyo and Seoul. "Cooperation between Korea and Japan is very important in all areas of diplomacy, economy and security, in the current serious international situation and difficult global crisis," he said. .
"I believe that the vicious circle should be broken for the sake of (the) peoples in the national interest, rather than leaving (our) relations (so) strained for a long time," he added.
"The Japanese government appreciates the measures announced by the South Korean government today as an effort to restore healthy relations between Japan and South Korea," Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters. Ties between the two neighbors had deteriorated since 2018 due to the return to the forefront of this historic dispute.
"We welcome the historic announcements," US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken also said in a statement, praising the "courage" and "vision" of the South Korean and Japanese governments. Seoul and Tokyo are "two of the United States' most important allies and we are inspired by the work they have done to advance our bilateral relationship," the US Secretary of State added.
South Korea also announced that it was ending its complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over export restrictions on certain Japanese products, pending bilateral discussions to resolve old disputes. "The two governments have decided to promptly conduct bilateral consultations related to the current export regulation issues to return to the situation before July 2019," South Korea's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
