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Kang Chang-il, new South Korean ambassador to Japan, arrived in Japan in January. (Kang Chang-kwang, senior staff photographer)

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi has deliberately avoided meeting with Kang Chang-il, South Korea’s newly appointed ambassador to Japan, a Japanese newspaper says. It’s very unusual that the South Korean ambassador to Japan has still not met the Japanese foreign minister more than a month after his appointment.

“The Japanese government will not meet [Kang] until the South Korean government devises an acceptable solution to the comfort women and forced labor issues,” Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Monday.

“Our stern treatment of Ambassador Kang Chang-il is basically a response to South Korea’s failure to resolve these issues,” a Japanese government official told the newspaper.

“The Japanese foreign minister’s meeting with newly appointed ambassadors from each country has more than ceremonial significance. The timing of their meeting is a yardstick of relations between the two countries,” a senior member of Japan’s foreign ministry was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Since no solution to the comfort women issue or other outstanding issues is forthcoming, Kang is likely to face considerable constraints in his activities vis-à-vis the Japanese government.

Following his arrival in Japan on Jan. 22, Kang completed a two-week quarantine period in line with the country’s COVID-19 regulations and assumed his responsibilities as ambassador on Feb. 12. Kang has reportedly told the Japanese government about his wish to meet with Motegi.

Kang’s predecessor, Nam Gwan-pyo, met with then-Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono just four days after being appointed ambassador on May 9, 2019. Then on May 21, just 12 days after his appointment, he even paid a courtesy call on then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The previous ambassador, Lee Su-hoon, met Kono two weeks after his appointment on Oct. 13, 2017.

Tokyo says that Seoul resolving the comfort women and forced labor issues is a prerequisite for the two countries improving their relations. Motegi’s refusal to meet the new ambassador corresponds to that stance, effectively showing that Japan won’t cooperate with South Korea in various areas until a solution is reached.

South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Chung Eui-yong assumed the duties of office on Feb. 9, but he still hasn’t even spoken on the phone with Motegi.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in proposed dialogue with the Japanese government first in his New Year’s press conference and then again in his commemorative address for the March 1 Movement, but the Japanese government countered that Moon didn’t offer any specifics and repeated its basic stance that the Koreans must be the ones to come up with a solution.

By Kim So-youn, staff reporter

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