hankyoreh

President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee of South Korea and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and first lady Yuko Kishida of Japan lay flowers at the memorial to Korean victims of the atomic bombings of Japan located in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 21. (Yonhap)

The leaders of South Korea and Japan held a summit on Sunday after paying respects together earlier that day at a memorial to Korean victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Commenting on the North Korean nuclear program and other issues, the two leaders agreed on the need to “make the current close-knit coordination among South Korea, the US, and Japan even more robust.”

At 7:35 am on Sunday, President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan presented flowers and held a moment of silence before the memorial at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Their respective spouses Kim Keon-hee and Yuko Kishida were also present.

It was the first time in history that the South Korean and Japanese leaders jointly paid respects at a memorial to Korean atomic bomb victims. It was also reported to be the first time in 24 years that a Japanese prime minister paid respects at the Korean victims’ memorial, the last one having been Keizo Obuchi.

Observing the two leaders and their spouses at the park as they paid respects before the monument were 10 Korean atomic victims from Hiroshima and its surrounding area, including Park Nam-ju, the 91-year-old former chairperson of a special committee for Korean atomic bomb victims with the Korean Residents Union in Japan, also known as Mindan.

But first-generation Korean atomic bomb and radiation victims visiting Japan from Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province, were not included in the attendee coordination process.

Explaining the significance of the joint memorial visit, South Korean presidential office spokesperson Lee Do-woon said it meant the two leaders were “confronting the painful history of South Korea-Japan relations and working together toward healing.”

He went on to underscore the importance of stronger trilateral security cooperation, saying that the visit also “holds significance as a message that the two leaders and two countries will join their ally the United States in responding to nuclear threats in Northeast Asia and the international community.”

“Where South Korea and Japan have focused mainly on words in resolving historical issues, this was an example of practice,” he stressed.

On the first day of his Japan visit last Friday, Yoon met with Korean atomic bomb survivors living in the Hiroshima area.

“I am sorry that it has taken so long for a South Korean president to visit you,” he told them.

“I offer my deep apologies for your homeland not being there with you when you were experiencing grief and suffering,” he also said.

In a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Professor Emeritus Lee Jang-hee suggested that “the genuineness of this memorial visit will be shown if South Korea and Japan work together actively in the future to provide compensation to atomic bomb victims and their family members.”

After their visit, Yoon and Kishida held a 35-minute South Korea-Japan summit at the memorial park’s nearby International Conference Center. It was the second such summit in two weeks, the last having come in Seoul on May 7. It was also the third in the past two months, coming after another summit in Tokyo last March.

The leaders agreed on the need for economic cooperation and a joint response to the North Korean nuclear and missile threats.

The spokesperson for Yoon’s office explained that they had “agreed on the need to make the current close-knit coordination among South Korea, the US, and Japan even more robust amid a serious regional political situation with the increasing North Korean nuclear and missile threats.”

“They also called for cooperating closely in the future to achieve concrete results in various areas, including foreign affairs and national security as well as the economy, industry, science and technology, culture and art, and personal exchanges,” he continued.

The two leaders further agreed to “continue practicing shuttle diplomacy as opportunities present themselves in the future.”

Yoon and Kishida also shared messages stressing the need to check the activities of China and Russia.

Lee explained that the two leaders emphasized the need for “an emphasis on a free and open international order grounded in government by the law” and for “unanimity among the many countries that value freedom.”

“They agreed that South Korea and Japan, which share universal values, need to respond to the global agenda through unity and cooperation, and in particular that they should strengthen their global agenda cooperation on the occasion of the G7 summit taking place in Hiroshima,” he added.

By Bae Ji-hyun, staff reporter; Jang Ye-ji, staff reporter; Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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