Lawmakers to head for Tokyo following PM’s visit

About 50 South Korean lawmakers with the South Korea-Japan Parliamentarians’ Union will visit Tokyo from Thursday to Saturday, to attend a regular joint session of the union with their Japanese counterparts. The 42nd joint session will be held Friday.

“We are going to visit each Japanese political party and attend the joint session,” the South Korean head of the union, Rep. Kang Chang-il of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), told reporters, Monday, after meeting National Assembly Speaker Moon Heesang at the Assembly to report the plan.

“Japanese lawmakers including Japan’s House of Representatives Speaker Tadamori Oshima and those from the upper house and from the lower House of Councilors will also attend the session,” Kang said, adding that the South Korean lawmakers’ visit to Japan is meaningful as they plan to have many rounds of discussions with their Japanese counterparts.

Lawmakers of the two countries are expected to continue discussions on how to solve the Seoul-Tokyo conflict over history and trade issues, following a high-level meeting last week between Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon and Abe on the sidelines of the coronation of Japan’s Emperor Naruhito. Lee and Abe vowed to stop further aggravation of the bilateral ties.

According to political sources, the South Korean lawmakers are also seeking to meet with Abe.

Last Friday, seven members of the South Korea-Japan Parliamentarians’ Union including Kang held a closed-door meeting with Prime Minister Lee at the Seoul Government Complex to listen to Lee’s report on his trip to Japan.

Kang said Lee asked them to have many conversations with their Japanese counterparts to “keep the momentum of the talks.”

Kang added he expects to have more private discussions with Japanese lawmakers as their meetings would be different from the “official” meeting between the prime ministers.

The South Korean lawmakers’ visit to Japan will be followed by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell’s visit to Seoul next week from Nov. 5 to 7. He is visiting six countries in Asia including Japan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and China.

Stilwell’s remarks in Tokyo last Saturday on not renewing the Seoul-Tokyo military information-sharing pact called the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) drew attention as the pact is set to expire Nov. 23, unless South Korea and Japan reach an agreement to renew it for another year.

Stilwell called for the renewal of the pact citing the trilateral security cooperation among the U.S., Japan and South Korea.