SKorea, Japan must look to future to improve ties

SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday that his government is eager for talks with Japan to improve relations following years of bitter feuding over historical grievances, adding that those unresolved issues should not stand in the way of developing “future-oriented” ties.

“There have been times where issues of the past weren’t separated from those of the future and became intermingled with each other. This has impeded forward-looking development,” Moon said in a nationally televised speech commemorating the anniversary of a 1919 Korean uprising against Japanese colonial rule.

“The Korean government is always ready to sit down and have talks with the Japanese government,” he said.

South Korea and Japan have been struggling to repair relations that sank to their lowest point in decades in 2019 following South Korean court rulings that ordered Japanese companies to pay reparations to Koreans who were forced to work in their factories during World War 2. Those rulings led to further tensions over trade when Japan put export controls on chemicals vital to South Korea’s semiconductor industry.

Another sticking point in relations is the issue of Korean women who were sexually enslaved by Japan’s wartime military, with survivors denouncing the Japanese government for refusing to accept legal responsibility for their slavery.

Japan has insisted that all wartime compensation issues were settled under a 1965 treaty normalizing relations with South Korea and it has reacted angrily to South Korean court rulings saying otherwise. There is a risk for further deterioration of the relationship if South Korean courts eventually order the liquidation of local assets of Japanese companies that have refused to compensate forced laborers.

While Moon said Seoul will continue to support Korean victims of Japanese wartime atrocities, he stressed that the countries “must not let the past hold us back.”

Moon said improved relations would also benefit the three-way cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the United States, which Washington sees as crucial to dealing with regional issues such as North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and China’s increasing economic and military might.

Moon expressed hope that this year’s Olympics in Tokyo could provide a stage to renew international efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea.

Seoul has placed much of the blame for bad relations with Tokyo on Japan’s hawkish former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and has hoped that his resignation for health reasons last September could be a diplomatic turning point.

ORLANDO: Donald Trump told conservatives on Sunday he was considering running for president again in 2024, as he reasserted dominance over the Republican Party and warned of a “struggle” for America’s very survival.

Echoing the grievance politics of his 2016 campaign and the harsh rhetoric of his one-term presidency, the 74-year-old fired up an enthusiastic crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando.

In a keynote speech — his first since leaving the White House on January 20 — he repeated his false claims that he won the election instead of President Joe Biden, and hammered establishment Republicans who voted against him in the latest impeachment drama.

But while he teased his future plans, he left the crowd guessing about whether he will challenge Biden in a rematch.

“With your help we will take back the House, we will win the Senate, and then a Republican president will make a triumphant return to the White House — and I wonder who that will be?” Trump said to a raucous cheer.

“Who knows?” he boomed about his potential plans. “I may even decide to beat them for a third time, OK?”

Banned from Twitter and other social media, Trump has maintained a low post-presidential profile at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

At CPAC, he walked on stage to revel in a lengthy standing ovation by cheering loyalists, the vast majority maskless despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Like he did so often during his two campaigns, he painted a pitched battle against as Democrats’ “socialist” agenda to remake the nation.

“We’re in a struggle for the survival of America as we know it,” Trump said. “This is a terrible, terrible, painful struggle.”

But he said the “incredible” populist movement that propelled him to victory four plus years ago is just beginning, “and in the end, we will win.”

Trump also put to rest the rumors that he might take his base of support to create a new political party.

“I am not starting a new party,” Trump said. “We have the Republican Party. It’s going to unite and be stronger than ever before.”

Trump as expected took swipes at Biden, saying the Democrat just concluded a “disastrous” first month in office.

In his rambling 90-minute speech he attacked immigrants, slammed “cancel culture,” criticized Biden policies on climate change and energy, and repeated his false claims that “illegal” actions by Democrats had cost him the election.

But he also took aim at Republicans he feels betrayed him — a strong signal that he will seek to help oust them in upcoming elections.

He called out by name the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach him in the House of Representatives, and the seven Republicans who voted unsuccessfully to convict him in the Senate.

“Get rid of them all,” he seethed, while the crowd jeered.

Trump remains the most potent force in the Republican Party, something he made clear he was acutely aware of Sunday when he described his own endorsement as “the most powerful asset in politics.”

US political parties usually face a reckoning after a string of setbacks such as those the Republicans saw under four years of Trump: losing the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The party is also marked with Trump’s repeated lies about his election loss, his impeachment over inciting the US Capitol riot on January 6, and the faultline his actions have caused between establishment Republicans and pro-Trump populists.

But, instead of jettisoning its troubled leader and charting a new path, much of the party still sees Trump as retaining a vicelike grip on its future.