Japan, S Korea eye package to resolve wartime labor, other issues

Doubt it very much, this issue will go on forever.

A new government will come and it will be all over again.

Until the next time a S. Korean president gets in a political bind?

Will he/she pull out the “when in a bind, blame Japan!” card?

Great news. Both governments have come to the conclusion that they need to work together and Japan is also building a strong military. Nobody else wants to get sucked into a proxy war like Ukraine.

Once again Japan is making a good-faith effort to resolve this issue, even though last time they negotiated a "final and irreversible" argument together with the Koreans, a few months later the new Korean government ripped up the agreement, and instead stoked up anti-Japan hatred for a decade.

And yet, even though the Koreans never said what they wanted in return, here Japan is coming to the table to try to negotiate an end to all this again. Hopefully it can work this time. An apology is owed by Japan, but Korea has been unreasonable on the matter over the past decade.

We should just give them recognition that a couple of rocks in the sea are theirs and make it quits.

This "bundled deal" is irrelevant as Japan's export restriction is a separate issue. SK has still failed to be accountable for the info bleach to the North, which concerns the Japanese security officials.

I am skeptical, but I am willing to give them a chance.

This article is incomplete.

As of now, the deal is stuck in the stalemate and isn't progressing. Yoon administration has made the contribution by the defendants(Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel) contributing into the fund under their own name as the absolute minimum condition(or else he can't sell the deal to Korean public 62% of whom oppose this deal according to polls), while Kishida has insisted on "Anyone but Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel and that's final".

Yoon can't actually back off from his position because he's caught in a "traitor" frame after the botched March 1st anniversary speech and would rather declare the negotiation failed than officially become the traitor that he's denying to be.

Additionally, lifting of sanctions is irrelevant at this point because both Samsung and SK Hynix have completely removed "Made In Japan" materials from their production lines and are "Japan Free", as Japanese suppliers were told to supply from factories outside of Japan or else by the end of 2022 and all have complied.

Japan owes SK nothing. No apology no money. . Japan is a totally different peace loving society compares to their pass history and this is the best form redemption that no apology nor money can replace. Build a bridge and get over it SK.

Japan would lift restrictions on certain tech exports to South Korea

This is very weird. Never heard of Germany putting export restrictions to victims of the holocaust. Never heard of government funds to compensate holocaust victims. Seems like they could resolve it and go and. Why is this still a lingering issue here?

@Fredrik

Why is this still a lingering issue here?

It's not. Samsung and SK Hynix imposed a ban on "Made In Japan" materials and Japanese suppliers wishing to keep the business complied, either moving their factories to Korea or supplying from Taiwan or Europe instead. The Japanese restriction no longer has any relevance.

No, it’s not enough. What will the politicians do to keep the far right wing happy in Korea and Japan.?

This won’t be put to rest cause the politicians get soooooo much currency out of it. If it’s a foundation funded by Korean companies,

Seoul has been considering using a foundation that would be funded by South Korean companies to pay the compensation instead of Japanese firm

The politicians will say it’s NOT Japan paying. So we will repeat the cycle. Japan will say they payed, and Korea will say Japan didn’t pay. And which company is going to volunteer to pay? Only for the Koreans to come back…. We want more! Set up a fund, funded by Japan, be done with it and lance this boil from WW2. Our kids and grandkid’s will thank you for doing it.

Just like all the posters here including myself, al those bunch of anti-Japan tribalism-cultists know nothing their days as being Japanese, not to mention, their days as being Chinese. WHY? SK wouldn't touch upon old people who still remember their good old Japanese days unlike Taiwan.

It is not just 1965 treaty and 2015 agreement. How many times have both officially and unofficially SK historical presidents promised " FULL STOP. NEVER AGAIN" to entice (under the table ) Japanese PMs??? An apology is owed by Japan? No SK owes Japan an apology.

Not bad. They should have long ago understood that their common enemy is NK, China and Russia.

Will this make South Korea join Quad Alliance to balance China? No.

Will this make South Korea stand up for Taiwan, Taiwan emergency is a Korean emergency? No.

Will this make Yoon deploy more THAAD and S.Korea stand-up to China or Russia? No.

South Korea wants neutrality unless South Korea is directly attacked.

Who benefitted most from Ukraine War? South Korean companies. Sold Billions upon Billions in weapons to Poland, making 200% profit from Polish fears of Russia. Wont give anything to Ukraine for free.

Who benefitted from Trump-China trade war in the past? South Korea made Billions from that conflict, Korea was best situated to take advantage of others pain.

South Korea is not reliable! Has no honor! Can't keep promises made! Agreements signed! South Korea is doing this for it's own Korean interest, for Korean survival! which requires Island Nation Japan to help directly or indirectly like previous Korean War.

@ReasonandWisdomNippon

Will this make South Korea join Quad Alliance to balance China? No.

Well, Korea and China have a secret non-intervention agreement, where China doesn't intervene during the regime collapse scenario of North Korea while Korea doesn't intervene during the Taiwan War and Diaoyu Islands war. Can't join.

Will this make South Korea stand up for Taiwan, Taiwan emergency is a Korean emergency? No.

While Korea agreed to not intervene during Taiwan contingencies, Korea has been helping Taiwan behind the closed doors, like training Taiwanese cadets in Korea and helping to construct Taiwanese submarines.

Taiwan's currently demanding that Korea help them develop its next-gen fighter jet.

https://www.aviacionline.com/2022/05/taiwan-rushes-its-future-fighter-program-and-relies-on-kf-21-boramae-design/

Taiwan rushes its future fighter program and relies on KF-21 Boramae design

.

Will this make Yoon deploy more THAAD and S.Korea stand-up to China or Russia? No.

Korea doesn't need THAAD; it has equivalent L-SAM currently going through interception tests for a formal initial deployment next year. UAE and Saudi Arabia are negotiating to buy them as well. Don't forget Korea is currently the 4th largest arms exporter in the world and Korea's situation is the opposite of Japan's.

https://ground.news/article/uae-sudden-interest-in-korean-thaad-l-sam-missile

UAE “Sudden Interest” in 'Korean THAAD' L-SAM Missile

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is interested in long-range surface-to-air missiles (L-SAM) being developed domestically...

https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/landwarfareintl/idex-2023-saudi-arabia-to-buy-korean-patriot-sam-system/

IDEX 2023: Saudi Arabia in frame to buy ‘Korean Patriot’ SAM system

24th February 2023 - 05:00 GMT | by Norbert Neumann in Abu Dhabi

@Strangerland

Korea already ripped up one "Final and Irreversible" agreement

Yes, the Democratic party already announced they reject Yoon's proposal and will tear up the agreement when they take back the presidential office which is 4 years ago.

Worse, Yoon's proposal has no effect on the forced laborers seeking to liquidate Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel's seized assets, because Yoon's proposal is merely a 3rd party suggestion and not legally binding at all. The forced laborer's lawyers announced they will continue the asset liquidation trial.

1) These so-called wartime labors are those who applied for high salary jobs in Japan voluntarily. Japan offered to liquidate the unpaid portion to individual workers but Korea requested to pay the total as they deliver the money to each person but diverted to development of industries such as Samsun, Hyundai, Posco, etc in 1965. That's why the debt is Korean gov't's original one and it's wrong to call 'take over the debt'.

2) Strengthening export control was demanded by the US and so Japan cannot determine Korea's white-country return by herself. Korea is too immature to know such back scene of international diplomacy.

3) Other than territorial dispute, there's left a serious issue that Korea's navy aimed at Japan's patrol airplane by weapon use radar. Therefore, above isn't the package to resolve issues.

Anyway, as far as Korea teaches true history into youth that that period isn't colonization but annexation that Korean King asked Japan and was better than Lee dynasty period for most of Koreans except brutal peerage, these grudge and victim mind continue forever.