hankyoreh

President Yoon Suk-yeol pledges allegiance to the South Korean flag ahead of a briefing on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of National Defense at the Blue House on Jan. 11. (courtesy of presidential office)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and his administration are the focus of growing concerns over their perceived support for the Japanese government’s new defense strategy and their plans to resolve the compensation of forced labor mobilization victims with contributions from South Korean companies.

Some observers are suggesting they risk facing a heavier backlash if they rush to improve relations with Tokyo without considering public opinion at home.

On Friday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin spoke by telephone with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi. During the conversation, the two discussed matters concerning victims of forced mobilization during the Japanese occupation, among other issues.

“The two ministers exchanged opinions on South Korea-Japan issues and matters of mutual interest, including issues related to forced conscription,” a South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said. This exchange of views with Japan and effort to speed up the improvement of ties came the day after the completion of an open forum to devise solutions to the forced mobilization issue.

During discussions at the National Assembly a day earlier, the MOFA announced a plan in which victims of forced labor mobilization during the occupation would be compensated with donations from South Korean companies, rather than from the Japanese companies like Nippon Steel that have been implicated in war crimes and actually bear responsibility for compensation.

The ministry said there that it plans to go ahead with this policy even without an apology or compensation from the Japanese companies. The victims have been up in arms over what they view as “immediately letting Japan off the hook for its responsibilities.”

Yoon has also seemed to side with Japan in some of his remarks. Commenting on Wednesday on the Japanese government’s increase in defense spending, he said, “It isn’t easy to prevent it when there are missiles flying over your head and the possibility of nuclear weapons arriving. Who is in a position to say anything to them?”

His remarks effectively defended Tokyo’s new National Security Strategy, which includes hikes in defense spending and the strengthening of enemy base strike capabilities.

Experts said the Yoon administration has been moving too fast to restore relations with Japan, as it declares its emphasis on beefing up trilateral cooperation with Tokyo and Washington amid mounting US-China conflict and inter-Korean tensions.

“Since the Yoon Suk-yeol administration took office, South Korean diplomacy has been all about the US and Japan,” said former Korea National Diplomatic Academy chancellor Kim Joon-hyung.

“When South Korea, the US, and Japan are bound together like they are now, then North Korea, China, and Russia will have no choice to band together, which places the Korean Peninsula right in the middle of the new Cold War framework,” he said.

In radio interviews Friday with the Hankyoreh and MBC, former National Assembly speaker Moon Hee-sang commented on the MOFA’s forced mobilization solution by saying it was “gravely mistaken if it thinks it can just elide over the consent of the National Assembly and victims” to resolve the issue.

“The government gives the impression that it’s rushing to meet some sort of schedule, and it shouldn’t be doing that,” he added.

“I expect things to escalate down the road,” he predicted.

Some analysts remarked that Seoul regards issues such as forced mobilization as secondary concerns that depart from the larger aim of strengthening trilateral cooperation with Japan and the US.

“It’s like they’ve sketched out a larger picture of restoring South Korea-Japan relations, and they’re trying to fit in other puzzle pieces like the forced mobilization issue around that,” said Nam Ki-jeong, director of the Seoul National University Institute for Japanese Studies.

“The problem is that with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida facing such low approval ratings, Japan isn’t in a position to make concessions, so things are moving toward a scenario where we’re the ones making unilateral concessions,” he added.

Responding to the criticisms, a high-ranking official with the presidential office said, “Nothing has been finalized yet, so we have no position on the concerns or criticisms.”

The Democratic Party was harshly critical of Seoul’s approach to resolving the forced mobilization issue.

“As we persist with this subservient diplomatic approach where the president moves first to take his cues from Japan, the matter of compensating forced conscription victims is heading in a very bad direction,” said party leader Lee Jae-myung.

“We need to put a stop right now to this meek, submissive diplomatic stance where we send the message that we’re willing to give up our livers and gallbladders if it helps improve relations with Japan,” he said.

Advocates of the victims and the group Action for South Korea-Japan Historical Justice and Peace held a candlelight assembly in front of the Seoul Finance Center in central Seoul’s Jung District on Friday to protest the government’s announcement of a “humiliating solution” on the forced mobilization issue.

By Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter; Kim Mi-na, staff reporter; Joh Yun-yeong, staff reporter; Shim Wu-sam, staff reporter

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