South Korea announced a plan to ease its dispute with Japan over colonial-era forced labor, removing a stumbling block to US President Joe Biden’s bid to expand cooperation between two key Asian allies.
(Bloomberg) — South Korea announced a plan to ease its dispute with Japan over colonial-era forced labor, removing a stumbling block to US President Joe Biden’s bid to expand cooperation between two key Asian allies.
Foreign Minister Park Jin unveiled a plan in Seoul Monday in which local companies would compensate Koreans forced to work for Japanese firms during the 1910-45 colonization of the country. Under the solution agreed by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, firms that benefited from a 1965 treaty with Japan, such as POSCO, would fund a foundation to compensate forced-labor victims.
“The government hopes to build a future-oriented relationship between Korea and Japan, based on reconciliation and cooperation,” Park said, according to prepared remarks. He also called Japan the his country’s “closest neighbor” sharing “universal values such as freedom and democracy, market economy, rule of law, and human rights.”
The Japanese government was also planning to lift restrictions on exports of key electronics components to South Korea in return for Seoul withdrawing a World Trade Organization complaint over the issue, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.
Yoon may visit Japan for talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later this month, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported, citing unidentified sources. Previous reports have said Yoon could be invited as a guest to the Group of Seven summit in Japan in May if the disputes were smoothed over.
Years of wrangling over Japanese companies’ liability has undermined business and military ties between the Asian neighbors, even as the US sought to have them work together to counter growing threats from North Korea and China.
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South Korean courts had found Japanese firms liable to compensate the plaintiffs in a series of cases rejected by the Japanese government, which said all such claims were settled under agreements reached when ties were normalized in 1965.
Company assets had been impounded in a move toward selling them off to fund the compensation, which would have further worsened ties. The deal will include a tentative plan to create a “future youth fund” supported by contributions from Japan’s Keidanren business federation and its South Korean counterpart, Yonhap said.
Asked about the reports in a parliamentary committee, Kishida said his government would uphold the historical stance of previous cabinets and that nothing was decided on which nations would be invited as guests to G-7.
Park Cheol Hee, a dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University who has been advising Yoon on his Japan policy, said that the president viewed Japan as a “partner for cooperation rather than an adversary.” Yoon and his administration believed that mending ties was in the “best interest of South Korea, considering the current security situation and economic circumstances,” he said.
A spokesman for Nippon Steel Corp., one of the companies affected by the lawsuits, said it was the firm’s understanding that all such claims had been settled in 1965 and that the two governments were continuing to negotiate. No one was immediately available to comment at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., also involved in the compensation issue.
The WTO agreed in 2020 to mediate the spat between the countries over Japanese restrictions on three classes of chemicals used in the production of smart-phone displays, TV screens and semiconductors. South Korea called the restrictions a “politically motivated” move that hurt South Korean manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc.
South Korea’s solution over the forced-labor issue may smooth the way toward lifting of restrictions and withdrawal of the trade action, the Yomiuri reported, citing unidentified government officials.
Agreements between Japan and South Korea intended to assuage anger over Japan’s past actions have often failed to take hold. A 2015 agreement that was meant to end a dispute over so-called Korean “comfort women” who were trafficked to Imperial Army brothels was later abandoned by South Korea.
While Yoon has been eager to rebuild ties with Japan, the move was almost certain to face a domestic backlash. Some forced-labor victims insist Japanese companies make a contribution, while the opposition Democratic Party, which holds a supermajority in parliament, has demanded Japan make a proper apology.
“The misguided agreement will once again inflict pain on the victims,” Democratic Party spokesman Park Seong-jun said in a statement. “It would only fuel the anger of the people and will be recorded as a historical flaw.”
Cheon Seong-whun, a former security strategy secretary at South Korea’s presidential Blue House said managing domestic public opinion in South Korea was a top priority now.
“People who are critical of the government within South Korea are likely to criticize Yoon even more over this agreement,” he said. “Therefore, there is concern that if Yoon Suk Yeol’s government’s approval ratings drop, the momentum to pursue this agreement may also decrease.”
–With assistance from Shinhye Kang and Tsuyoshi Inajima.
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