South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck Soo said Tuesday that he hopes President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to Japan will consolidate the improvement of bilateral ties between the two countries, twelve years after a South Korean leader last visited the Japanese archipelago.
»We hope that the hard-won momentum for improving Korea-Japan relations will be firmly established through this visit,» Han said in remarks carried by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
He said »the resumption of long-stalled exchanges between the leaders of Korea and Japan will be the first step for the two countries to move forward into the future without being tied to the unfortunate history of the past.
In addition, the head of the South Korean government has assured that Tokyo is »a neighbor with whom one can discuss and cooperate in various fields such as economy and security, science and technology, culture and climate change».
Han’s remarks come two days before Yoon visits Japan for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, following Seoul’s decision to compensate Korean victims of forced labor in Japanese companies during the war through donations.
The South Korean presidential office said Tuesday that the trip, which takes place Thursday and Friday, will begin with a »fellowship meeting,» meetings with political and business figures, and a dinner between the two leaders, Yonhap reported.
Yoon and Kishida hope to discuss ways to normalize relations, with measures such as the implementation of forced labor compensation, as well as actions to resolve political barriers through export promotion and economic cooperation.
On the second day, the South Korean leader will meet with politicians from the Korea-Japan Parliamentary League and hold a lecture to Japanese and Korean university students.
»This visit to Japan is to announce that Korea-Japan relations, which have been strained so far, have entered a full-scale normalization,» said National Security Office spokesman Kim Seong Han.
Relations between the two nations had deteriorated significantly after the South Korean Supreme Court in 2018 ordered two Japanese firms to compensate colonial-era victims. Therefore, Seoul’s recent decision to compensate victims without Japan’s involvement has been interpreted by Tokyo as a sign of Yoon’s strong commitment to improving bilateral relations amid notable challenges, such as the North Korean nuclear threat.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
