Seoul, South Korea ( Nikkei/ DT) – On Friday, the leaders of Japan and South Korea pledged to advance new areas of cooperation, including immigration procedures and citizen evacuation during emergencies, during a summit marking the end of a period of improved bilateral relations fueled by their personal rapport.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Seoul for a farewell meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol. Kishida, who will step down as prime minister in early October following the election of a new leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party later this month, used the occasion to reflect on their collaborative achievements.
READ MORE :“Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev Meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome”
“Over the past two years, working with President Yoon, who has been committed to enhancing our bilateral relationship, we have made significant progress and opened a new chapter in Japan-South Korea relations,” Kishida told reporters. “It is crucial for both nations to continue building on this momentum.”
President Yoon echoed the sentiment, underscoring the importance of sustaining efforts to strengthen ties between the two countries.
“It is crucial to maintain the positive momentum in our bilateral cooperation that Prime Minister Kishida and I have developed,” President Yoon Suk-yeol said in a statement from his office. He noted that next year will mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo and expressed hope that relations could reach “a new level” by 2025.
During the meeting, Kishida and Yoon agreed to start detailed discussions on streamlining immigration procedures and confirmed their commitment to collaborating on evacuating citizens during emergencies in third countries.
They also addressed security concerns related to North Korea, affirming their intention to continue working together, alongside their shared ally, the U.S., on issues concerning Pyongyang and Russia.
The trip is the prime minister’s second to South Korea for a bilateral summit with Yoon during his term. In May of last year, Kishida became the first sitting Japanese prime minister to participate in a bilateral summit in South Korea in 12 years.
Kishida announced in August that he would not seek a new term as head of the LDP in its leadership contest. That means he will also be replaced as prime minister as the LDP is the majority party in parliament.
“The importance of Japan-South Korea relations will remain unchanged in the future” Kishida said. “I myself, in whatever role I take on, will do my utmost to make the Japan-South Korea relationship more solid and broad-based.”
Kishida and Yoon have partnered to achieve considerable rapprochement between their historically rival countries.
The conservative Yoon started his term in May of 2022, less than a year after Kishida took office nearly three years ago, and called for a “future-oriented” reset to long-frayed bilateral ties with Japan, a signal that Kishida did not ignore.
Analysts said the cooperation between the two East Asian democracies is likely to survive Kishida’s departure.
“While Prime Minister Kishida deserves credit for breaking the ice with Seoul, I do not see continued cooperation between Japan and South Korea as contingent on his presence,” Rob York, director for regional affairs at the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum think tank, told Nikkei Asia.
“The current government in Seoul has staked much of its agenda on enhancing its diplomatic prestige within the U.S.-led order, and the U.S. will continue to encourage that cooperation,” York said.
The men held their first summit when Yoon traveled to Tokyo in March 2023. Before traveling to Japan, where he also became the first sitting South Korean president to participate in a bilateral summit in 12 years, Yoon had announced a plan to pave the way for a fresh start between the two Asian democracies and staunch U.S. allies.
That vision centered on creating a fund with donations from private companies to provide compensation to South Koreans forced to work for Japanese companies during World War II. The question of providing financial compensation to the laborers had long been a source of tension between Seoul and Tokyo, with the workers, their descendants and some civic groups insisting on an official payment from the Japanese government.
Tokyo has steadily insisted that all such war and colonial-era era matters were settled under an agreement signed in 1965 under which Japan provided financial aid and the two sides established formal diplomatic relations. Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to its defeat in World War II in 1945.
Yoon’s plan garnered pushback from the left-wing opposition at home and civic groups, but the two sides still went on to bolster trade and security cooperation in the ensuing months. Seoul and Tokyo both removed trade restrictions they had implemented in connection with their historical disagreements.
They also strengthened ties with their shared ally, the U.S. Kishida and Yoon held a summit near Washington in August last year with U.S. President Joe Biden, in which the three countries agreed to work together to better guard against threats from North Korea.
In a joint statement, they pledged to “operationalize” their real-time sharing of missile warning data. Washington has warmly welcomed the friendly ties between Seoul and Tokyo, and had long pushed for reconciliation between the countries that are critical to its global military and security strategy.
Last year, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum presented its annual Profiles in Courage award to Kishida and Yoon in recognition of their efforts to heal ties despite long-standing historical issues and domestic pushback.
“Both leaders chose a more hopeful future for their countries as opposed to being held captive by the past,” the award’s organizers said.
Additional reporting by Mayumi Hirosawa in Seoul and Yuichi Nitta and Nancy Zheng in Tokyo FOR Nikkei