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The South Korean government announced on Apr. 20 that it is sending US$700,000 in humanitarian aid to Ecuador, which was recently hit by a major earthquake. But so far it has not stated any plans to assist Japan, which was similarly struck. Why isn’t South Korea looking after its neighbor?

South Koreans’ opinions on the Japan earthquake are heavily polarized. One side has blasted the Park Geun-hye administration for being so rattled over the Saenuri Party’s general election loss that it forgot to lend a hand. The other side contends that South Korea did lend a hand when Japan suffered the mega-earthquake of Mar. 2011, only to be rewarded with more historical distortions and refusal to acknowledge the state’s criminal behavior in the drafting of comfort women. From this emotionally driven perspective, any assistance is out of the question. For now, there seems to be almost no hope of mediation or reconciliation between the two sides.This is not to say that Seoul’s failure to provide aid to Japan is the result of it being caught between these two extremes. In fact, it has told Tokyo of its intent to help numerous times. On Apr. 18, Park sent a letter of condolence to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In it, she shared a message of “deep condolences and consolation” for the large human and financial toll and announced Seoul’s “intent to support in the recovery.” A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said on Apr. 21 that the South Korean government had “repeatedly stated its intent to provide support,” but that Tokyo had “respectfully declined, saying it would ‘gladly accept moral support’ but that it could handle the recovery itself.” The argument is that Japan was offered support and said no, not that the two sides are on poor terms.

Indeed, the so-called “advanced countries” tend to refuse assistance from other countries even when they are hit by major disasters. They have strong disaster systems in place, they argue, and are not short on financial resources. There’s also a sense of pride among the Japanese, who see earthquakes as part of their lives and consider themselves leaders in earthquake preparedness. About the only case of another country officially taking part in the Kumamoto earthquake recovery process came when US Forces Japan provided its Osprey vertical takeoff and landing aircraft to help rescue victims.

Under the circumstances, Seoul is not to be faulted for failing to send relief goods or workers to Japan. But it is strange to see the lack of any relief fund-raising effort in South Korean civil society. Former comfort women Kim Bok-dong and Gil Won-ok donated 1.3 million won (US$1,140) as a “small show of support,” and Asiana Airlines delivered an emergency shipment of 1,000 blankets to the affected region. But that is all we know of. It’s a very different situation from the Mar. 2011 earthquake in eastern Japan, where South Korea was the first to send emergency rescue crews, and civic groups and others raised and delivered over 9 billion yen (US$82.2 million). “A true friend is a friend who helps you when you are down,” they said at the time.

The root of the issue this time could simply be the judgment that the latest earthquake - unlike the massive one in 2011 - is something Japan is capable of recovering from on its own. But it is hard to believe the response was not influenced in some way by South Koreans’ widespread antipathy toward the agreement reached by Seoul and Tokyo on the comfort women issue on Dec. 28, and toward the Abe administration’s historical reversals and de facto denial of the 1993 Kono Statement acknowledging coercion and expressing a message of apology and remorse on that issue. If so, it’s a sad and distressing state of affairs.

The Park administration has made it clear that it plans to enforce the terms of the Dec. 28 agreement - including the establishment of a foundation to support comfort women survivors - within the first half of 2016. This would almost certainly trigger an outcry from the opposition, which ran and won in the general elections on a platform of nullifying and renegotiating the agreement, and the survivors themselves, who filed a Constitutional appeal calling the agreement unconstitutional. South Korean society is poised for a conflict that is very likely to sweep relations between Seoul and Tokyo up in its wake.

There’s a saying among South Koreans: you can miss happy occasions like weddings, but you should always be there for sad ones like funerals. It’s human nature; half of giving is simply sharing the grief. As comfort women survivors, Kim and Gil have said that they are not fighting the people of Japan. It would be nice to see South Korea’s civil society reaching out a hand of solidarity to Japanese public in their profound moment of loss after the earthquake. Whatever Seoul or Tokyo may say, the Dec. 28 agreement will not be enough for a “future-oriented” relationship to take shape between the two sides. That can never truly happen without solidarity of the heart between South Korean and Japanese civil society.

By Lee Je-hun, staff reporter

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