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President Yoon Suk-yeol (right) listens to speeches by state leaders at the NATO summit for allies and partners in Madrid, Spain, on June 29. (Yonhap News)

The leaders of South Korea and Japan took advantage of their attendance at the NATO summit to quickly forge closer ties. Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met five times over the course of the NATO summit and are expected to rapidly act on their new consensus to improve bilateral relations.

An official in Korea’s presidential office was optimistic about the prospect of improving ties. “All preparations seem to be in place for the leaders [to resolve Korea-Japan relations] through a ‘top-down’ approach rather than a ‘bottom-up’ approach,” the official said.

“I’m interested in quickly dealing with pending issues between our countries and moving forward in a future-oriented manner following the House of Councillors election [on July 10],” Yoon said during his first encounter with Kishida at a welcome dinner hosted by the king of Spain.

Yoon’s overture was embraced by Kishida, who said, “I know you’re working on behalf of Korea-Japan relations. Let’s work together to develop healthier relations.”

The two leaders also saw each other at the Korea-US-Japan summit, the summit between NATO’s four Asia-Pacific partners, a commemorative photo shoot, and the summit for NATO allies and partners on Wednesday.

Yoon addressed the issue during off-the-cuff remarks to reporters in Madrid. “I’m confident that Prime Minister Kishida and I can resolve the pending issues between our countries and be the kind of partners who can develop our bilateral relations for the future interests shared by our countries.”

In fact, the Korean government has been moving quickly to improve relations with Japan. On Monday, it will be launching a public-private consultative body aimed at resolving the issue of compensating Koreans conscripted for labor during the Japanese colonial occupation. The government also seems eager to normalize Korea and Japan’s intelligence-sharing agreement, known as GSOMIA.

But questions remain about whether South Korea and Japan are on the same page about how to actually carry out their vision for improving relations and cooperating on responses to North Korea.

Kishida said in his opening remarks at the South Korea-US-Japan summit on Wednesday that he hopes that active steps will be taken to prevent North Korea’s ballistic missile launches and provocations, and spoke of the great importance of holding exercises — including joint exercises — in response to North Korea’s ballistic missiles.

Kishida also stressed reinforcing Japan’s defense capabilities.

While noting that South Korea and the US hadn’t discussed what kind of exercises those might be, an official from Yoon’s office said, “There are many examples of our three countries carrying out noncombat military exercises limited to purely humanitarian disaster aid. In the past, we’ve also swapped teams of observers and allowed the Japanese to watch our exercises with the US.”

“Trilateral security cooperation with the US and Japan is something that will take time to review because of the issues of Japan’s exercise of the right of collective self-defense and the structural limitations of Japan’s ‘peace constitution,’” the official added.

Those remarks seem to imply that such cooperation, while not out of the question, is unlikely to happen immediately.

If Japan continues to insist that Korea must find a solution for sensitive subjects such as compensating victims of forced labor, actually improving bilateral relations may prove difficult. And the government may face blowback if it continues to close the gap with Japan on historical disputes without adequately consulting the public or securing the consent of the victims.

There are also serious concerns that improving relations with Japan to facilitate security cooperation could clear the way for Japan to expand its military capabilities. Kishida has promised to increase Japan’s defense budget from its current level of 1% of the country’s GDP to 2% within five years.

Yoon himself created a stir during his presidential campaign when he responded to a question about a proposed trilateral alliance with the US and Japan by saying that Japan could intervene on the Korean Peninsula in the event of a war, even if that wasn’t the explicit purpose of such an alliance.

In related news, Yoon wrapped up his visit to Spain on Thursday and touched down in Korea on Friday.

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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