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President Yoon Suk-yeol sits down to speak with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a trilateral summit held June 29 in Madrid, Spain, on the sidelines of the NATO summit. (Yonhap News)

Despite the leaders of South Korea and Japan rubbing elbows a minimum of five times at this week’s NATO summit, Japan adhered to its position that Korea should be the one to come up with solutions to pending issues between the two countries.

While the two sides agreed that their bilateral relationship needs improving, Tokyo appears to have stuck to the rigid posture that it has maintained for years.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in Spain on Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, “In order to return to a healthy relationship [with Korea], we will communicate closely with the Korean side, including the president, based on Japan’s consistent position.”

Japan’s “consistent position” here refers to Tokyo’s stance that major issues between the two countries, including the “comfort women” issue of Japanese military sexual slavery and a South Korean ruling on compensation for victims of forced labor by Japan, have already been resolved through the 1965 Korea-Japan normalization pacts and the 2015 Korea-Japan agreement on wartime sexual slavery.

For this reason, the Japanese government is holding out, claiming that the Korean government must provide a solution that Japan can accept in order to resolve these matters. The failure to hold a bilateral Korea-Japan summit on the sidelines of the NATO conference is said to be due to the fact that Tokyo has yet to see the action it’s hoping for from Seoul.

An official in the prime minister's official residence in Japan told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, “The ball is back in Korea’s court. Until there is progress there [and Japan has the ball] we cannot hold any summit. This is how the prime minister sees it.”

The fact that Kishida was serving as foreign minister for Japan in 2015 and played a pivotal role in inking the comfort women agreement is also said to be contributing to the ongoing stalemate in bilateral relations.

Quoting a source close to the prime minister, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily wrote that Kishida is being “cautious about the Japan-Korea relationship” due to his experience with the 2015 comfort women agreement. “This is because if South Korea doesn’t recognize [the agreement] once again after compromises are made, it will inevitably deal a blow to his administration,” the source said.

Kishida has previously voiced strong grievances with Seoul on several occasions, particularly toward the former Moon Jae-in administration, which he felt had essentially abandoned the 2015 agreement.

Furthermore, the Japanese government believes that Korea is dragging its feet on the issue, with the liquidation date of certain Japanese companies’ assets in Korea — a result of a South Korean court ruling regarding reparations for individuals forced to provide labor for Japan during its colonization of Korea — fast approaching.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official told the Yomiuri Shimbun, “The Yoon administration needs to present a solution, not just desire [for a solution].”

Another Foreign Ministry official also told the Mainichi Shimbun that Japan will not make the first move.

“Once the assets [of Japanese companies] are liquidated, there’s no going back,” the official said. “There’s not much time left.”

The Korean government is planning to launch a public-private consultative body on Monday to find concrete solutions to the issue of compensation for victims of forced labor. The government plans to actively communicate with victims and support groups after establishing the consultative body.

Within the government, a plan for payment by subrogation in which the Korean government uses its budget to pay out compensation to the plaintiffs first, then claims the right to indemnity from a foundation created by collecting “voluntary” donations from Korean and Japanese companies is being reviewed as a practical alternative.

However, for this proposal to become a reality, some believe Japan must take corresponding measures, such as sending a message of apology to the plaintiffs.

A South Korean government official told the Asahi Shimbun, “If the Japanese side does not make some concessions, such as issuing an apology to the plaintiffs, it will be difficult to resolve the issue.”

In response, an official from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “We have no choice but to wait to see what kind of plan will come out [from South Korea].”

“If [Japan] pushes forward only in principle, it will be difficult for the Korean side to approach [and resolve the issue] too,” the official added.

By Kim So-youn, Tokyo correspondent

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