Yoon ‘confident’ of new Japan relations

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday hailed growing cooperation with Japan on issues from North Korea to semiconductors, saying it was part of a historic “new chapter” for the two countries.

Mr Yoon will travel to Tokyo today, his first visit since taking office last year, which follows his controversial move to try and finally settle a bitter historic dispute over Japanese World War II-era forced labour.

Mr Yoon said he was confident his new plan to compensate victims would work, telling media including AFP in a written interview that “the Japanese government will join us in opening a new chapter of Korea-Japan relations”.

Mr Yoon’s plan, unveiled this month, involves compensating Korean victims without Tokyo’s direct involvement, which has enraged some victims who say this falls far short of their demand for a full apology and direct compensation from the Japanese companies involved.

“Japan has expressed deep remorse and heartfelt apology in regard to its past colonial rule through the position of its previous governments,” he said.

Around 780,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced labour by Japan during its colonial rule of the peninsula from 1905 to 1945, according to data from Seoul. That number does not include Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.

Mr Yoon is eager to lay the historic dispute to rest as he seeks closer ties with Tokyo — a key regional ally of Seoul’s security partner Washington — in the face of growing threats from North Korea.

Pyongyang last year declared itself an “irreversible nuclear state”, with leader Kim Jong-un at the start of 2023 calling for an “exponential” increase in weapons production — including tactical nukes.

South Korea will “never acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear state under any circumstances,” he said. “The North Korean regime could easily resolve its food shortages if it injected the money it spends on nuclear and missile development into improving its people’s livelihoods.”

Both South Korea and Japan are ramping up defence spending and joint military exercises, which Mr Yoon said were essential for regional and global stability.

“There is an increasing need for Korea and Japan to cooperate in this time of a polycrisis with North’s nuclear and missile threats escalating.”