Abe’s negotiation with Moon falls flat

In their first official meeting since September 2018, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed Tuesday to continue talks on the issues at the root of the recent bilateral chill, though a resolution remains a long way off.
The summit here, which ran 15 minutes beyond the originally scheduled half-hour, began with efforts by the two leaders to dispel wariness on both sides. Abe stressed that Japan and South Korea are “important neighbors to each other.””Matters may have been uncomfortable for a while, but we can never be far away,” Moon responded.In one of the few uniting themes of the meeting, the two leaders reconfirmed the importance of maintaining cooperation between each other, as well as with Washington, on the situation regarding North Korea.Yet the dynamic remained tense, according to attendees from both countries. The relationship soured after South Korean court rulings last year ordering Japanese companies to compensate Koreans forced to work for them during World War II. Tokyo tightened controls on exports to its neighbor this summer in what Seoul views as retaliation.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, second from left, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, second from right, met Dec. 24 for the first time in more than a year.

At the summit, the two leaders stuck to their official talking points. Abe told Moon that the court ruling “touches on the legal basis on which the Japan-South Korea relations and the normalization of diplomatic ties is based on.” He put the ball squarely in South Korea’s court, saying that he hopes that Seoul takes the steps necessary to put bilateral relations back on a healthy track.  The South Korean leader said he hopes to resolve it soon, but a decisive solution has yet to emerge.In the foreign ministers’ meeting held ahead of the summit, the Korean side strongly opposed to Japan’s claim that the court ruling was in violation of international law. With a general election coming up next April, Moon cannot risk any actions that could lose him support from his base.While Moon Hee-sang, speaker of South Korea’s National Assembly, submitted a bill to the legislature last week with the intent of breaking the diplomatic deadlock, the government has been reluctant to throw its support behind the legislation.The measure would create a fund to compensate former laborers using donations from Japanese and South Korean businesses and individuals. But plaintiffs in forced-labor cases and progressive citizens’ groups supporting President Moon’s administration have opposed this proposal, on the grounds that it does not make Japan’s responsibility clear.A representative from the presidential Blue House said that resistance from victims whose claims have been validated by the courts would make settling the matter “difficult.”The process of selling assets seized from Japanese companies in the labor cases is reportedly set to begin around the time of the April elections. This is unacceptable to Tokyo, which asserts that all claims to compensation in such cases were settled in a 1965 agreement.Liquidating these assets “must be avoided,” Abe insisted at the summit.The South Korean side, meanwhile, focused mainly on Tokyo’s export controls, which have inflamed anti-Japanese sentiment in South Korea and sparked ongoing boycotts. A lack of visible progress on this front could lead to the Moon administration becoming another target for public anger.When Seoul in November reversed its decision  to exit an intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo, it made clear that the move was contingent on Japan removing the additional restrictions.Japan’s trade ministry on Friday relaxed controls on exports of photoresist, one of three chipmaking materials hit by the curbs. While the Blue House has indicated it is not satisfied with this move, lifting restrictions on the other two materials will be tougher.Tokyo asserts that the controls are purely a trade issue and entirely unrelated to politics.An upcoming court decision could put reconciliation further out of reach. South Korea’s Constitutional Court will rule Friday on the legitimacy of a 2015 agreement, now essentially gutted, that was intended to “finally and irreversibly” settle the issue of wartime “comfort women.” Tokyo has pressed Moon’s administration to abide by the deal, which was signed under Moon’s predecessor, Park Geun-hye.