hankyoreh

South Korean President Moon Jae is pictured walking down the steps after posing for a photo with the heads of states participating in the G7 summit that took place in Cornwall, England, from Friday to Sunday. (Yonhap News)

The leaders of South Korea and Japan had been planning to meet briefly in Cornwall, England, on the sidelines of the G7 summit, but Japan reportedly canceled the plan without prior notification, the Hankyoreh has confirmed. There are concerns that Japan’s actions will further complicate the two countries’ efforts to improve relations.

“There was an agreement in place for the two leaders to hold a brief meeting in Cornwall, and both leaders were aware of that,” a senior official in the South Korean government said Monday.

“The timing was flexible, but we were planning to meet briefly as we did with the French president. But the Japanese unilaterally broke their word.”

This official was referring to the “pull aside” meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and French President Emmanuel Macron held in the lounge at the summit venue for about 10 minutes on Sunday.

In short, South Korea and Japan’s diplomats had arranged for Moon and Suga to hold a similar pull-aside, rather than a spontaneous encounter occurring without any prior arrangement.

Following an official welcome ceremony by the UK, which hosted the G7 summit, at 3:30 pm on Saturday, Moon took advantage of an interlude before the first session was set to begin at 4 pm to approach Suga and greet him.

Under the previous arrangement, that interaction should have led naturally to a pull-aside, but Moon and Suga’s interaction ended after a minute or so when Suga hinted that they should talk later.

According to Japanese newspapers the Nihon Keizai Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun, Moon once again approached Suga after the barbecue dinner. But this time Suga only offered “a greeting so as not to be rude” while declining to engage in conversation.

Moon thought there would be another chance to meet with Suga on the following day, but after the scheduled events ended, Suga immediately departed the venue.

After meeting with the Japanese press following his schedule at the G7 summit, Suga said, “[South Korea] isn’t keeping its promise to another country. The conditions aren’t right [for holding a meeting].”

“South Korea needs to point the way [toward resolving this problem]. I hope that Moon will exercise his leadership and clearly settle this problem.”

The reason that Japan offered for not engaging in dialogue was the South Korean Navy’s “East Sea territorial defense exercise” scheduled to be held on Tuesday in the waters around Dokdo, a South Korean island also claimed by Japan. While this is a biannual exercise, held once in the first half and once in the second half of every year, Japan reportedly lodged a protest with South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday.

“We couldn’t have imagined that Japan would cancel a meeting of its leaders because of an annual exercise,” a navy spokesperson said.

Moon had reportedly intended to use the pull-aside with Suga to announce that he plans to attend the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics at the end of July as part of his attempt to restore bilateral relations.

“I doubt any other country has conveyed its hopes for the success of the Tokyo Olympics as consistently as South Korea,” lamented an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Moon didn’t bother to hide his displeasure in a message on Facebook on Sunday. “My first encounter with Suga was a valuable moment that could lead to a new beginning in South Korea-Japan relations, but I think it’s a shame that it didn’t lead to a meeting.”

This reconfirms that Suga is holding to his hardline position that South Korea has to offer concessions as a precondition for a summit meeting, making it even harder to create an opportunity to improve bilateral relations.

“We’ll have to wait and see how the situation plays out,” said another official from South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

However, Japan strongly denies the South Korean claim that it unilaterally canceled a meeting planned between the two leaders on the sidelines of the G7 summit.

“We immediately protested to Korea about its very regrettable unilateral release [of information] that is contrary to the facts,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said during a regular press conference on Monday.

But a close reading of Kato’s remarks leaves open the possibility that a meeting had been arranged between the two sides, as South Korea claims.

“My understanding is that the two leaders’ meeting didn’t take place at the G7 summit because of scheduling conflicts or other reasons,” Kato said, adding that “the two leaders did briefly exchange greetings at the venue of the summit.”

Kato’s explanation could be taken to mean that the two sides had agreed to hold a meeting in advance but that the meeting wasn’t held because of scheduling issues.

South Korea asserts that Japan didn’t go ahead with the meeting because of the East Sea territorial defense exercise scheduled for Tuesday in the waters around Dokdo, known as Takeshima in Japan. The Japanese government acknowledged that it had protested the exercise.

“In light of the historical facts, Takeshima is clearly Japan’s sovereign territory under international law. We made a strong protest to the South Korean government [about the exercise] and asked for it to be halted,” Kato said.

By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter

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