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South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha shakes hands with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono prior to their summit on Dec. 19.
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The refusal reflects unhappiness with South Korean government task force on comfort women agreement
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono told South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is unlikely to attend the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Dec. 21. Signs are pointing to Tokyo’s attempts to link the question of Abe’s attendance at the Games with a bilateral agreement on the comfort women issue. In a report on Dec. 19, the Asahi Shimbun quoted multiple sources on South Korea-Japan relations as saying Kang had communicated a message from President Moon Jae-in saying that he “hopes to welcome Prime Minister Abe at the Pyeongchang Olympics,” to which Kono replied, “That [attending] would be difficult given the current situation.” The sources also quoted Kono as saying the South Korean government appeared to be involved in efforts to oppose the agreement reached in Dec. 2015 on the comfort women issue. “The Japanese government, which has been distrustful of the South Korean government response on the comfort women issue, now appears to be ‘playing hard to get’ diplomatically,” the newspaper said. The South Korean “efforts to oppose the agreement” mentioned by Kono appeared to be a referenced to a report scheduled for Dec. 27 from a task force examining the comfort women agreement. Many are predicting the report will include claims that a “victim-focused approach” was lacking in the agreement reached between the governments in 2015. Following their meeting, Kono said he had “mentioned [to Kang] the importance of faithful implementation of the agreement.” The Asahi Shimbun quoted a source as saying Kono’s remarks “communicated the position that if the South Korean government adopts an attitude of trying to repudiate the comfort women agreement, Japanese feelings toward South Korea will sour and Prime Minister Abe will be unlikely to visit.” At the same time, with South Korea’s cooperation necessary for the success of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the Japanese government did not entirely rule out the possibility of Abe attending the Pyeongchang Olympics. The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the outside report “contrary to the facts.” “My understanding of the South Korea-Japan foreign minister talks is that the Japanese side expressed a position in favor of examining a South Korea visit by Prime Minister Abe at the time of the Pyeongchang Olympics,” ministry spokesperson Noh Kyu-duk said in a Dec. 21 regular briefing. But some analysts are suggesting the word “examining” as used by Abe and Kono in reference to Moon’s invitation was not intended with a positive connotation. By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
