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President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol shakes hands with Japanese Ambassador to Korea Koichi Aiboshi at the offices of the presidential transition committee in Seoul on March 28. (pool photo)

South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol addressed Korea-Japan relations on March 28, saying, “If the political leaders, bureaucrats and citizens of Korea and Japan make a strong and energetic push toward a future-oriented bilateral relationship, I’m confident that other issues can be effectively resolved through dialogue, as difficult as they may seem.”

“I think that Korea-Japan relations must be developed in a future-oriented way and that we must quickly restore the positive relations we had in the past. It seems that more effort is needed from both sides in this regard,” Yoon said during a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Koichi Aiboshi in the office of the presidential transition committee in Seoul’s Tongui neighborhood that morning.

“There are differences of opinion between us and issues that look difficult to resolve at first blush. But I think that if we engage sincerely in communication and dialogue, those issues won’t turn out to be so difficult,” Yoon added.

Yoon reemphasized trilateral cooperation between Korea, the US and Japan.

“Since Korea and Japan are partners with several areas in which they can cooperate, including national security and economic prosperity, we need to build a future-oriented cooperative relationship based on correct historical attitudes if we’re to overcome the recent strain in our bilateral relations. We need to put our heads together about this,” Yoon was quoted as saying in material distributed to the press by his spokesperson Kim Eun-hye after the meeting.

Yoon also referred to North Korea’s recent launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, which nullified its moratorium on such tests. “South Korea, the US and Japan need to cooperate together even more closely to convince North Korea that it has nothing to gain from nuclear weapons.”

“Along with posing a grave security threat to both South Korea and Japan, North Korea’s nuclear weapon and missile provocations are regarded as a serious challenge by the international community. Given that, we hope to continue working closely with South Korea in the future for the stability and prosperity of East Asia,” Aiboshi said.

In a phone call with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on March 11, Yoon said, “It is important for our two countries to rationally resolve the issues between us in a way that corresponds to our mutual shared interests. Following my inauguration, I mean to keep strengthening trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the US and Japan on matters related to the Korean Peninsula.”

Yoon and Aiboshi had planned to meet on March 17, but their meeting was delayed until March 28 after Aiboshi contracted COVID-19.

Upon meeting the ambassador, Yoon inquired about his health, asking if he was feeling better after his bout with COVID-19. Aiboshi offered his “sincere congratulations” upon Yoon’s election as president and said he had “completely recovered,” while apologizing for the inconvenience caused by his sickness.

Yoon was accompanied at his meeting with the Japanese ambassador by lawmakers Park Jin, Kim Seok-ki, and Cho Tae-yong; Kim Seong-han, a senior member of the transition committee’s foreign affairs and national security subcommittee; and Kim Eun-hye, his spokesperson.

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

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