hankyoreh

By Seok Jin-hwan, Blue House correspondent and Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter

President Park Geun-hye responded positively on Mar. 15 to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s announcement the day before that he does not plan to revise the Murayama and Kono Statements acknowledging Japanese responsibility for colonization and the forcible mobilization of “comfort women” to serve as sexual slaves to the Japanese military during World War II.

“I think it is fortunate that he has announced his plans not to revise [the statements] even at this point,” Park said of Abe’s statement.

Park’s unusual decision to issue an official position the very next day after Abe’s remarks has many asking whether this points to a thaw in the long freeze in relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

For now, the South Korean administration and Blue House are warning against reading too much into Abe’s shift, or Park’s response to it. In particular, they are noting that while Park did respond positively to the remarks, she also urged Abe to adopt a “proper view of history,” something she has previously demanded as a condition for improving ties.

Indeed, Park’s description of the comments as “fortunate” came along with what amounted to a demand for follow-up measures from Tokyo, with the President expressing “hope that this can lead to some healing for the wounds suffered by the comfort women survivors and more stable relations for South Korea and Japan and for Northeast Asia.” Her remarks make it clear that she expects some kind of concrete action from the Abe administration on the comfort women issue before relations between the two countries return to normal.

Noting that the Blue House’s response “indicates that they want to give it meaning and take [relations with Japan] in a positive direction,” a senior official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cautioned, “So far, it’s just been words. All we can do know is wait and see what kinds of actions come.”

“Japan needs to closely observe how we are viewing this,” the official added on condition of anonymity.

Within the government, the prevailing view is that Japan needs to offer some kind of “impetus” for Seoul to change its tack, such as a statement from Abe declaring that he does not plan to pay respects at Yasukuni Shrine or an acknowledgement of legal responsibility on the comfort women issue.

Meanwhile, some are predicting that Abe’s turnaround on the statements could lead to a bilateral summit at the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) scheduled for Mar. 24-25 in The Hague, an idea that the administration and Blue House are dismissing.

“Trust isn’t built through a single word,” said a senior government official on condition of anonymity. “This was just a case of returning to place from an extreme step backward.”

“Nothing has changed as far as Japan’s backward moves on historical issues are concerned,” the official added. “We’ll just have to keep watching.”

At a more practical level, the fact that the NSS is only a week away leaves little time to prepare or coordinate an agenda. Further lowering the likelihood of a summit is the fact that the two governments have yet to bridge their differences at all on territorial and historical issues like the comfort women, sovereignty over Dokdo, and the whitewashing of imperial Japan’s actions in history textbooks.

Park previously dismissed the idea of a summit last year, asking “how it would help matters to have a summit for the sake of a summit, only to have an issue like Dokdo or the comfort women come up?” She also said the two countries “would be better off not having a summit as long as there are no changes [from Japan].” In her New Year’s address this year, Park said a summit “would require sufficient preparations beforehand, because the results would be beneficial in developing our countries’ relationship.”

In any case, trilateral dialogue with the US during the NSS is a very real possibility. Already, Washington is pressuring the Seoul and Tokyo to beef up the three-way alliance against the growing China threat ahead of President Barack Obama’s scheduled visits to South Korea and Japan late next month.

“If the US starts pushing hard for a summit [with Japan], it may be tough for us to say no,” said a diplomatic source, adding, “We could end up discussing matters like North Korea and the political environment in Northeast Asia.”

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]