Japan considering high-level dialogue with S Korea

The loon

"Unlike the Moon administration, we can welcome the next administration," a senior Foreign Ministry official said. "We want to make contact at the right timing."

Not the best attitude to take since the issues dividing SK and Japan are mostly historical, not immediate and existential.

Why would they be merely "considering" talks in that case? Start earning some of that high level foreign ministry bureaucrat money.

Two smallish neighboring countries with much in common, both next door to a large and aggressive dictatorship (and a small dictatorship with nukes). And they are just now "considering" high level dialog. That Japan and Korea aren't close partners in the region is a testament to the incompetence of politicians on both sides.

Hopefully doesn't start like Moon did by ripping up the previous PM's signed contracts with Japan

This is going to turn out to be a nothingburger. Mark my words. We probably need a few more generations to pass before any realistic attempt at a resolution can take place.

The problem with this is that the Korean presidency is usually a very fragile position and there is very poor records on keeping agreements of previous governments. Anything achieved by the dialogue can only be considered as an agreement with this specific person.

 it is needed to form a future-oriented partnership based on correct perspective toward history

Every historical presidents of SK had said the same thing, future-oriented relationship with Japan.

Now Yoon's seem (if it was translated exactly) upgraded relationship to partnership, which is better

and yet, added based on correct perspective toward history which ruins entire statement as meaningless.

The problem with this is that the Korean presidency is usually a very fragile position and there is very poor records on keeping agreements of previous governments. Anything achieved by the dialogue can only be considered as an agreement with this specific person.

Considering how extreme some of the social and economic policies he advocated are my concern is that he would leave office discredited and with a large part of the South Korean population very angry with him. That anger would in turn be directed at any kind of agreement or accommodation he may work out with Japan. Japan needs to tread very carefully here lest they become seen as facilitating a quasi-fascist authoritarian leader in South Korea. it would be a huge step backward for Japan.

I've always thought all conversations between leaders of nations were high level talk.

This is going to turn out to be a nothingburger. Mark my words. We probably need a few more generations to pass before any realistic attempt at a resolution can take place.

It is up to Japan and Japan alone to atone for it's barbaric WWII past and do so in a way that is viewed as unequivocally sincere. Yes Japan has "apologized" at various times but these apologies always come across as half hearted, fingers cross behind their backs, with highly couched wording that never fully admits the severity of their crimes. The year or so later some right wing Japanese politician flaps his or her yap, saying something outrageous that basically reveals Japan's insincerity to the world.

Copy the example of the Germans. Send military and diplomatic delegations to remembrances of Japans worst atrocities at the site of these atrocities. Send a delegation to Singapore, to Darwin, to South Korea, to Pearl Harbor, etc. Do that every year like the Germans do at the anniversaries of their worst WWII barbarities. Send a delegation to Okinawa to memorialize the US invasion alongside officials from the US and other Pacific Allies from WWII just as the Germans send their delegation to Normandy for the anniversary of D-Day. Until Japan does that her half hearted apologies will never be taken seriously.

"Unlike the Moon administration, we can welcome the next administration," a senior Foreign Ministry official said. "We want to make contact with fellow misogynists."

"............... it is needed to form a future-oriented partnership based on correct perspective toward history," Yoon told the ambassador, according to his spokeswoman.

That's how it starts and that's how it will end, total waste of time.

If they are so willing to improve relations they why are they still considering high-level dialogue ?

The only part of this that is high level is a superiority complex.

@Desert Tortoise - 10:04 am

well said !

I agree completely of the sincere effort Germany makes.

Japan would do well to be more sincere regarding its own war crimes.

It is up to Japan and Japan alone to atone for it's barbaric WWII past and do so in a way that is viewed as unequivocally sincere. Yes Japan has "apologized" at various times but these apologies always come across as half hearted, fingers cross behind their backs, with highly couched wording that never fully admits the severity of their crimes. The year or so later some right wing Japanese politician flaps his or her yap, saying something outrageous that basically reveals Japan's insincerity to the world.

Copy the example of the Germans. Send military and diplomatic delegations to remembrances of Japans worst atrocities at the site of these atrocities. Send a delegation to Singapore, to Darwin, to South Korea, to Pearl Harbor, etc. Do that every year like the Germans do at the anniversaries of their worst WWII barbarities. Send a delegation to Okinawa to memorialize the US invasion alongside officials from the US and other Pacific Allies from WWII just as the Germans send their delegation to Normandy for the anniversary of D-Day. Until Japan does that her half hearted apologies will never be taken seriously.

@tortoise

When do you stop stereotypically messing the experience of Korea altogether with other countries? Barbaric ww2 experience for Korea? What is that?

It's mistaken to see the relationship as dictated by the things noted above.

It simply boils down to the fact that the US-dominated LDP cannot work with a SK administration that doesn't fully support the American agenda.

Now that Moon is out and a conservative (in SK as in Japan this means US-friendly) is in, the Japanese government will resume working more closely with SK, and this news story is simply prefacing this development (goes without saying that the Japanese public will for the most part go along with this shift).

Japan considering high-level dialogue with S. Korea:

As it appears now, president-elect of S. Korea is pro-US, in the same flock as Japan.

If both leaders speak with similar frequency, they can look forward to a closer collaboration, especially in national defense.

US wins..

My mother was part of the Manhattan Project. 

And yet you say Japan was barbaric and needs to apologize? This is the double standard many Americans have been trained to have - all to support the most active war machine of the past 100 years. The Japanese military thought they were the good guys too. The difference is they lost and had a reckoning - something the US has yet to experience. I am sure your family are all fine people, but fine people are often convinced by evil governments that they are doing good.

But what matters is not what our ancestors did. It's what we do now.

Hopefully doesn't start like Moon did by ripping up the previous PM's signed contracts with Japan.

Mealy mouthed, replete with obfuscation, just another in a long line of even worse backroom deal, pennies on the pound ‘agreements’ that were ripe for the trashing. No amount of spin about supposed Korean willingness to improve the soured relationship can disguise the fact that it’s Japan that’s on the back foot and hoping for a modus vivendi with a formidable trade nemesis.

It is up to Japan and Japan alone to atone for it's barbaric WWII past and do so in a way that is viewed as unequivocally sincere. 

Japan has atoned for its war crimes. It is on South Korea to stop its anti-Japan antics and stop indoctrinating its children. The fact that South Korea has passed on its grudge for more than seventy years and view North Korea more favorably while countries like Taiwan have moved on and have a good relationship with Japan is abnormal.

@ commanteer

Your comments are exactly on point!

Korea was not invaded as other Asian nations were in WWII. In fact over 200,000 Koreans are estimated to have served in the Imperial Japanese armed forces and invaded other Asian countries. Allied POWs were brutalized by Korean Guards in te PI and a Korean general was convicted and executed as a Class-A war criminal. Reports from Australian POWs indicate the brutality of Korean guards in building the Burma Railway as well. South Korea will now have a President who appears to have a realistic view of his country's defense posture, and he will have to overcome the years of Anti-Japan sentiment and historical revisionism that has been used as a political tool and an open playground for groups like the Chong Dae Hyup, worsened by Moon during his presidency. US strategic posture in Asia calls for a close working relationship between South Korea and Japan. In 2015 the US applied considerable pressure on the Park administration to conclide the "Permanent and Irreversible" Comfort Women Agreement, which Moon promptly ripped up upon coming into office. Moon completely destroyed any trust that Japan held in South Korea. The US is watching very closely as to whether the incomming Yoon adnministration will act in a manner that benefits the US, South Korea and Japan.

Japan should do nothing with Sk that’s the best solution Sk will huff buff bluff n implode itself as past present n future r all different things bt ignorance won’t make sk see the present or future alys stuck on past n lies

@Desert TortoiseToday 10:04 am JST

Well said. Completely agree.

If both leaders speak with similar frequency, they can look forward to a closer collaboration, especially in national defense.

US wins..

Japan, SK and US all win when all are on the same page working together.

In the future, if Japan and Korea refuse to form closer alliances then the present generations’ children will be speaking Chinese…as a first language!

Japan will only deal with Far Right South Korean politicians who will kowtow to Japan. The 1965 agreement was made with the dictator Park Chung-hee who was an officer in the IJA and was assassinated. The 2015 agreement was made with the daughter of Park Chung-hee and she was arrested and sent to prison. If Japan was serious about solving issues pertaining to the colonization of Korea by Japan then they should be willing to negotiate with any govt. that is elected by the people of SK.

Former President Moon Jae In was always dreaming about a good relationship with North Korea and was very successful at the beginning. This good start was only possible because he was blaming Japan for all and everything what happened in the past in Korea. However while he could blame Japan for everything up to the end of WWII in 1945, he cannot blame the Japanese for the follow-up Korean War 1950 - 1953 which caused the huge destruction of the Korean Peninsula. The Japanese Army did not even exist at that time.

He managed even to bring North Korea and USA to meet each other face to face, but there was no progress and there is no progress up to now. North Korea remains to be a very strange isolated country.

Moon Jae In could blame only Japan to please North Korea. However he could not blame USA, because without USA South Korea would not even exist today. Of course North Korea did not agree with that...

The follow-up president Yoon Suk Yeol has now two choices, either to continue somehow like former President Moon Jae In or to turn away from North Korean issues and to negotiate a more friendly political climate with Japan.

I think really he should try first of all to create a better relationship with Japan, that's better for both countries. About North Korea, I see no progress in the near future - he will need strong assistance of China, otherwise nothing will change.

....he could blame Japan for everything up to the end of WWII in 1945, he cannot blame the Japanese for the follow-up Korean War 1950 - 1953 which caused the huge destruction of the Korean Peninsula. The Japanese Army did not even exist at that time.

In all seriousness, for one second do you really believe that the finger of blame for the conflagration on the peninsula rests anywhere other than Japan? And that the unraveling of its 35+ year meddling was not THE precursor?

“But, at that time, we chose it by ourselves. It is not Japan invaded our land. Our ancestors chose it. If we chose Qing Dynasty that soon perished, we would have had more chaos on the peninsula. If we chose Russia that soon got overturned, we would have had the entire peninsula turned to a communist country. It might not be the best but if we were to chose, I valued choosing Japan as second best.”

President of Korea Chunghee Park

“I was born in a family of a very poor farmer and so I could never dreamed of going to school. It was a Japanese official who persuaded my parents to send me to primary school. And it was a Japanese teacher who recommended me to the Japanese Army War College. The reason I am here today is because of the compulsory education system they introduced, and because of the clean and honest Japanese people”

President of Korea Chunghee Park

Chunghee Park a.k.a Takagi Masao

https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/2n6osc/south_korean_president_takagi_masao_park_chunghee/

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Chunghee Park a.k.a Takagi Masao

https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/2n6osc/south_korean_president_takagi_masao_park_chunghee/

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Yet he knew much more about their Japanese days than all of you. So Much more. and he is not the only one

who had Japanese names knowing the truths