Representatives from North and South Korea and Korean communities overseas who are in Seoul to participate in Liberation Day festivities released on Monday a statement calling for Japan's thorough reflection, compensation for past aggression, and the good-faith implementation of a peace declaration between the North and Japan. It is meaningful when Koreans from North, South, and overseas issue a joint statement towards Japan on the sixtieth anniversary of Liberation. There is direct dialogue between the North and the United States in regards to restarting the six-party talks, and yet negotiations between the North and Japan about establishing diplomatic relations continue to be frozen because of the kidnapping issue. If important first steps are made on the North Korean nuclear issue at the six-party talks, Japan no longer has an excuse to neglect the matter of diplomatic relations with the North, which it should also do for the sake of finally settling post-war questions. Relations between the South and Japan began forty years ago but were stared the wrong way at the very beginning, and so it is important that North and South talk frankly about the issue so that relations between the North and Japan do not experience the same mistakes.
However, it is not wise for North and South to get excessively nationalist, thereby unnecessarily upsetting Japan. Koreans need the wisdom to refine their statements, remembering that there are always others on the other side of the table. The part of the joint statement that describes a "nation-wide campaign [in Japan] to worship war criminals" is not an appropriate choice of phrase for winning Japanese understanding.
On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II, Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi issued a rare prime minister's message. It was not impressive in any new way for it was pretty much a quotation of what was said by former Socialist Party prime minister Tomiichi Murayama ten years ago when he expressed remorse and an apology for colonial rule and aggression. What will be of key importance for Japan in winning the trust of neighboring nations is to not still be repeating the prefabricated statements but to demonstrate the words with actual behavior.
The Hankyoreh, 16 August 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Joint Statement and Japanese PM's Statement |
