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Members of a far-right Japanese group wave Japanese Rising Sun flags at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15. (Yonhap News)
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Observers wait to see if talks will resolve current trade dispute
As the dispute between South Korea and Japan continues, the two countries’ top diplomats will be sitting down together during a meeting with their Chinese counterpart in Beijing this week. South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced on Aug. 16 that South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be attending a meeting on the outskirts of Beijing on Aug. 20-22. This will be the ninth in a series of regular meetings between the three countries’ foreign ministers. The foreign ministers’ meeting will reportedly be held on Aug. 21, with a series of bilateral meetings between Kang and Taro, Kang and Wang, and Taro and Wang expected to take place around the same time. An official from South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said that bilateral talks with Japan and China are in the process of being arranged. Kang and Taro’s meeting comes shortly before the deadline for South Korea to decide whether to extend an information-sharing agreement with Japan, known as the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), on Aug. 24, and the date when Japan’s announced removal of South Korea from its white list of trusted trading partners will take effect, on Aug. 28. South Korean President Moon Jae-in extended an olive branch to Japan in his commemorative address on Liberation Day, Aug. 15: “If Japan chooses the path of dialogue and cooperation, we will gladly join hands.” Considering that the two countries’ foreign ministers are meeting so soon after Moon’s speech, observers are watching to see whether they’ll manage to find a solution for their conflict. But a mere meeting between Kang and Taro is no guarantee that a concrete solution will be found. For one thing, there’s a huge divided between Japan and South Korea on the export controls and the issue of forced labor during the Japanese colonial period; for another Japan’s punitive economic measures are being organized by the prime minister’s office and by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and not by the Foreign Ministry. The discussion in the trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting, which was last held three years ago, is expected to focus on the question of a trilateral summit that’s supposed to be held in China, which is this year’s chair. The Blue House earlier said that the three countries are “currently coordinating” the timing of the summit. By Park Min-hee, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
