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© Thomson Reuters 2022.South Korea seeks to kickstart talks to resolve historical feuds with Japan
By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
42 Comments
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Gazman
It’s been resolved, Japan paid the money as agreed & that’s the end of it. Nothing to see, move on.
OssanAmerica
South Korea has to regain it's credibility with Japan. Nothing is going to happen with the same old approach. If SK FM Park is coming to Japan expecting to get anything out of Japan, he's barking up the wrong tree. For too long Japan has agreed to and complied with whatever SK demanded, only to have SK move the goal posts. Frankly, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if Japan demanded a Guarantor for SK, such as the U.S., in all of it's agreements with SK. J-PM Kishida was the J-FM who negotiated and concluded the 2015 "Permanent and Irreversible" Comfort Women Agreement, only to have Moon rip it up unilaterally. South Korea threw egg on his face then and the SK-FM Park needs to be fully aware of that if he expects anything from Kishida.
TrevorPeace
"Historical feuds"? More like "hysterical".
Bart Fargo
That should be fun!
Look forward to the day that all of Japan's disputes with South Korea is all water under the bridge.
THEN, they can do it all over again with North Korea someday.
Hiro
Sure,another agreement. Then after the Yoon adminstration leave office, the next one will probably tear up the agreement yet again. They never keep their words anyway.
shogun36
Yay. A complete waste of time! Fun for all!
Just everyone forget the past on this one and move on already. It’s old. Come up with new stuff.
Concerned Citizen
Resolve by forgiving, forgetting and moving on for mutual benefit.
bokuda
Do not forget.
History must be remembered to not repeat it in the future.
Apologize publicly and put the history back in the Japanese school books.
kennyG
The greatest Supreme court of South Korea under ideal separation of powers in far advanced democratic country than Japan did not even touch nor refer to the arbitration clause clearly stipulated in the agreement.
Even small kids would question why and claim it is unfair
Axel
Return to Japanese jurisdiction the island in the Sea of Japan (Takeshima?). Stop seeking "one last settlement for war crimes" every 5 years. Stop with anti-Japanese promotion every time the South Korean government has domestic problems it wants people to forget. That would be a good start.
Not trying and don't mean to dismiss Japanese war crimes but you can't keep asking for a "final settlement" every few years long after more than one "final settlement" has already been paid.
kennyG
What is even funny is the chief judge of this verdict immediately retired leaving a message " I wrote the verdict with my solid intention to build the country from scratch all over again" He probably misunderstood him being the president of SK or something even stronger, clearly overstepping his power
Mark
""South Korea hopes a high-level visit to Tokyo next week will kickstart talks aimed at a breakthrough in historical disputes""
NEVER, you give an INCH they will ask for a YARD.
Azzprin
AGAIN
Every time something is agreed, the next lot tears it up.
Ricky Kaminski13
If you wanna get along with someone , you will. Let’s see how they go this time. Diplomats do your thing!
OssanAmerica
Some 250,000 Koreans served willingly in the Imperial Japanese forces, making use of the Comfort Stations and invading other Asian countries. Korean guards abused Allied POWs in the Phillipines and Burma, and several were charged and convicted as War Criminals. One Korean, a General in the IJA was convicted as a Class-A War Criminal and executed. South Korean revisionist history makes no mention of these facts, spreading the falsehood that Korea was "invaded" just like the other Asian nations. True history must be remembered, not revisionist history.
Japan has apologized countless times. The last would be an official apology from PM Shinzo Abe as demanded by South Korea in concluding the 2015 Comfort Women Agreement. Which South Korea's Moon ripped up.
The security of South Korea today under the Yoon administration requires South Korea to face up to it's true history as part of Imperial Japan instead of pretending to be merely a victim.
Yrral
Ossan,going to this war criminals shrine,is not act of apologies, Japanese were the losers,why are they celebrate,being humiliated
WA4TKG
Dial 0120-WAAH.
I don’t know the Free Dial prefix for South Korea, sorry.
Peter14
An opportunity for Japan to engage South Korea over disputed Islands. If they want all issues to be resolved then add that to the pile and see what outcome can be achieved. It is one of the "historical feuds" after all.
ReasonandWisdomNippon
South Korea getting another apology, compensation again = Nothing will change, we did this play before. Korean will say the next day it doesn't count, doesn't cover emotional or knee damage, or not sincere for Korean Hearts.
South Korea won 56 times with each applogy we give. We apologies so much, the Koreans have become spoiled, and wants apologies yearly. Each PM should apologies to Koreans until the end of time!
South Korea received compensation multiple times, by the government, including Japanese citizens in the 90s, which doesn't count anymore to Koreans,the bar was moved yet again.
Many Koreans wants to hate Japan and No Consequences! Koreans paid no price for hating Japan! They benefited instead! Money, apologies, comfort women statues, island being taken away from Japan, changing the name of Japan Sea.
South Korea will not stop Until Japan stops apologizing and giving compensation like a dumazz who paid already and did his time!!!
painkiller
With Abe gone, maybe some progress can be made.
Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne
Actually it was before 1910 that Japan invaded Korea.
Late 1800's
The occupation agreement was signed in 1910
Don't forget originally it was the Korean/han that invaded the islands they now call Japan.
Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne
OssanAmerica
JIA invaded the Asia-Pacific/Oceania
You forgot to include alot of nations and the Pacific /Oceania
Australia ,new Caledonia ,the Solomons ,Singapore etc etc... blah blah...
ReasonandWisdomNippon
Mr. Shinzo Abe himself gave apology and compensation in 2015. Koreans accepted. Signed.
Then in 2017 under Moon, back to 0 again. Relations got worse. Better if we never signed anything in 2015.
Koreans can always back away from any deal with Japan, even those as Final and Irreversible in the title!!
ReasonandWisdomNippon
Death of Mr. Abe is seen in Korea as another opportunity to get Japan on the apology track again. Compensation again. With relations always 1 visit away. 1 word away. Anything that bothers Korea about Japan, relations off again. We hate Japan again. This garbage is getting old! Korean games are getting old!
Strangerland
I don't even know why Japan bothers. They negotiated a "final and irreversible" agreement almost a decade ago, which the Koreans ripped up and never proposed anything in return. Now they're demanding again.
Entire waste of time. Let the Koreans eat cake.
ClippetyClop
Whatever the past, these two are now natural allies against their aggressive northern neighbours. They share much in common and can be a very effective block. Korea has to realize that there will always be a noisy Japanese element who resent losing the war, and Japan must understand that past crimes need to be acknowledged with continued sincerity.
Yoon seems eager to improve relations, it will be interesting to see how much pride each side can swallow.
Samit Basu
@Hiro
There is nothing to tear up. Yoon already clarified his administration is nothing but a mediator, the final agreement is between the forced laborers and the Japanese government. So if the forced laborers won't agree to an agreement, there is none.
@kennyG
That's because the damages weren't included in the 1965 treaty, thus is not subject to arbitration.
noriahojanen
There is no linkage between the Korean-rooted Unification Church and the ROK government. But their styles of exploitation look similar. In fact, the Church has acquired 70% wealth from Japanese followers. They argue that with donations to the Church, Japanese will be cleared of "wartime guilt." And it never ends. The retholic is quite identical.
How Abe and Japan became vital to Moon’s Unification Church
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/unification-church-japan-shinzo-abe/
Desert Tortoise
Japan never invaded New Caledonia? It was a forward operating base for the US Navy throughout WWII. Many of Japan's pre-WWII island possessions were former German colonies awarded to Japan after the defeat of the Central Powers in WWI. Japan was on the Allied side for that war and this was her reward. Japan certainly did invade a lot of other places in the early days of the war including Singapore (which the Brits refused to even try to defend notwithstanding having a large land force there facing a by then worn down and tired Japanese force).
Desert Tortoise
Will whatever the Koreans and Japanese negotiate this time around be honored by the next South Korean administration? What guarantees can be written to ensure future South Korean administrations and legislatures adhere to whatever terms are negotiated?
Samit Basu
@Desert Tortoise
There is nothing to honor because **the agreement will be between the forced laborers and the Japanese government, with the Korean foreign ministry acting as a mediator. **
At least Yoon is admitting it was a mistake for Park to announce an agreement rejected by the comfort women themselves in 2015, and any agreement to be reached this time will be between the forced laborers and the Japanese government.
So it's sort of an ultimatum from the forced laborers; unless the Japanese government the terms of forced laborer's demands, they will liquidate seized Japanese assets as scheduled. And there is nothing Yoon can do to stop this as a law is required to stop the liquidation and have 3rd party pay the court-awarded damages but **the Democratic party has the supermajority in the parliament and they want the liquidation to go ahead. **
Yrral
American are get screwed biggly,we are spending almost 839 billion dollars on defense,and the majority of the soldiers are station overseas,we are not risk from a invasion, paying the soldiers salary and benefits,do not amount too that much, Russia cannot confront us head to head,them being weak and incompetent
kennyG
That is nothing but unilateral ( and skewed) interpretation by just one party for the agreement concluded with another party.
even small kids would quickly answer
Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne
@desert Tortoise
I should have said attacked not invaded.
Then perhaps you'd agree with me
OssanAmerica
14 Class-A War Criminals out of 2,466,532 people named in the shrine's Book of Souls doees not make it a "war criminals shrine". Study the topic before commenting; nobody goes there to "celebrate" anything.
Makoto Shimizu
Currently Japan and Korea have more positive motives to strengthen their alliance and as it is not possible to correct the errors of the past, is just necessary to recognize, apologize and make the appropriate compensations and move on, move forward, towards peace, cooperation. Japan and Korea as friends is much better than any other option, diplomacy is the key for success.
OssanAmerica
Japan has done all that. It's South Korea that has continued to press the same claims repeatedly. Just look how many people think "Japan needs to apologize" when it has done so repeatedly.
The onus was on Japan in the begining. And they have complied. So now the onus is solely on South Korea.
OssanAmerica
Abe gave a Prime Ministerial apology as requseted to conclude the "Permanent and Irreversible" 2015 Comfort Women Agreement. That Moon promptly ripped up.
If any progress can be made it's only because Moon is gone.