Yesterday, Korean President Geun-hye Park had a conference with former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori who had visited Korea to be at the opening ceremony for the 17th Asian Games. During the meeting, former minister Mori delivered a letter from Japan’s current prime minister, Shinjo Abe written directly to the president of Korea. No Cut News reported that through this letter, the prime minster has expressed that Japan wishes to improve relations with its closest neighbor.
It is believed that Prime Minister Abe had made some very specific proposals for President Park concerning Korea-Japan relations. For instance he had proposed the hosting of a Korea-Japan summit meeting in the near future. Right now, there is a great deal of tension between the two major nations of East Asia, conflicting on issues such as the “Comfort Women” victims of World War II and territorial disputes over the island of Dokdo and the East Sea.
Amidst the excitement of the opening of the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, there have been attempts to bring the nations together. Later in September, the foreign ministers from both Korea and Japan are scheduled to hold talks at the United Nations General Assembly. On October 1st, there will be another meeting of representatives from the two countries in Tokyo.
The Korean administration seems to have a rather optimistic view regarding Prime Minster Abe’s proposal. At the same time however, Korea’s Foreign Ministry asserted that they will remain objective when it comes down to sensitive historic issues such as Japan’s religious pilgrimages to the Yasukuni Shrine to commemorate its World War II veterans who historically have committed great atrocities against Korea, China and many other nations during the war.
Gwang-il Rho, a spokesperson for Korea’s Foreign Ministry expressed that the Korean government will maintain a firm position regarding such sensitive issues but at the same time they hope to increase exchange and cooperation between the two nations regarding other fields such as economy and culture.
The key issue that may determine the future of diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan may be how to solve the problem of the “Comfort Women” victims. These are Korean women who were forced to serve as sexual slaves for the Japanese soldiers during World War II. So far, Japan has done nothing to compensate for their war crimes or even confirm that such atrocities had even taken place despite numerous eye witness accounts and documented evidence.
