 |
|
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tries to get South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono together following a commemorative photo after the ASEAN Regional Forum in Bangkok on Aug. 2. (Yonhap News)
|
Seoul and Tokyo clash during ASEAN meeting; Singapore and China express support for former
During a total of four meetings with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono on Aug. 2 — including a bilateral meeting and trilateral talks between South Korea, Japan, and the US — South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha voiced her “strong regret” for Japan’s decision to remove South Korea from its “white list” of trusted trade partners and called for the “immediate retraction” of that decision. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also expressed his serious concerns about the developments and said that the US would do what it could. At 4:30 pm on Friday, Kang spent half an hour in a trilateral meeting with Pompeo and Kono at the Centara Grand Hotel in Bangkok, which Kang is visiting to attend a meeting associated with ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Kang shared the outcome of the meeting with reporters afterward. “I communicated my strong regrets for Japan’s decision about the white list. I made clear that they need to retract that decision immediately, [resolve] this issue through deliberations, and take part in dialogue,” she said. Kang also said that South Korea and the US had made an effort to prevent Japan from reaching that decision. “Until today’s events, we’d been saying that we wouldn’t stop trying to resolve the issue through dialogue, and the US was making the same efforts. But now things have turned out like this, which I think is really regrettable. The US is also very concerned about the situation and has told us that it will do what it can to see what can be achieved,” she said. In an attempt to head off the Japanese government’s decision, the US had earlier suggested that the two countries come to a standstill agreement, but Japan rejected that suggestion, the Blue House said on Friday. About an hour after Japan’s white list decision on Friday, Kang and Kono found themselves face to face during the meeting of top diplomats from ASEAN member states, along with South Korea, China, and Japan. Sharp words were exchanged, with diplomats from Singapore and China chiming in with remarks that seemed to lend support to the South Korean position. “[Japan’s decision] was made in a very unilateral and arbitrary manner. We are gravely concerned about this decision, to put it mildly,” Kang said shortly after the meeting began. “I’m not aware of the source of the grievance felt by Minister Kang,” Kono fired back. “South Korea has hitherto enjoyed a privileged status, and it will either continue to do so in the future or it will enjoy a status that’s equivalent to that of our friends in ASEAN.” With these remarks, the Japanese diplomat suggested that South Korea had no reason to get upset about receiving the treatment given to ASEAN member states, none of which are on the white list. But Kono’s remarks prompted a surprise comment by Singapore’s Foreign Minister. Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan reportedly responded by saying that what Japan should be doing is not removing South Korea from the white list but adding ASEAN states instead. Japanese Foreign Minister Wang Yi voiced his agreement with Balakrishnan’s comment. Yi was quoted as saying that it was regrettable that such issues had arisen when the ASEAN member states, South Korea, China, and Japan were “all one family” and that matters of this sort should be resolved through “mutual trust and good will.” By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
