Japanese Media: "South Korea Sends Overtures to Japan Amid Concerns Over Diplomatic Deadlock with Neighboring Countries"

"Background of Efforts to Improve Korea-Japan Relations is Biden's Victory"
"Japan Cannot Simply Agree to Freeze Forced Labor Issue"

Park Ji-won, Director of the National Intelligence Service [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] The Nihon Keizai Shimbun analyzed and reported on the 20th that the Moon Jae-in administration is seeking to improve Korea-Japan relations by sending key figures to Japan one after another, concerned about the deadlock in diplomacy with neighboring countries.

In an article from Seoul on the same day, Nihon Keizai mentioned that last week Park Jie-won, Director of the National Intelligence Service, and Kim Jin-pyo, Chairman of the Korea-Japan Parliamentary League, visited Japan and held talks with Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide, asserting this point. Nihon Keizai also described Japan’s reception of such figures from Korea as a "flirtation."

Nihon Keizai diagnosed that the background behind the Moon Jae-in administration’s active moves to improve Korea-Japan relations lies in the victory of Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden in the U.S. presidential election. It explained that since Biden, as vice president in 2015, directly mediated the Korea-Japan comfort women agreement, there is concern that leaving the deteriorated Korea-Japan relations unattended could leave a bad impression on the Biden administration, which emphasizes alliance-centered diplomacy.

Additionally, it mentioned that the outlook for North Korea-U.S. relations is uncertain and the timing of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Korea is also unclear. A diplomatic source in Seoul told Nihon Keizai, "The Moon administration is worried about diplomatic isolation."

Along with this, the Korean government’s attempt to improve Korea-Japan relations to draw North Korea into dialogue around the Tokyo Olympics was also interpreted. It cited Park Jie-won’s proposal during his meeting with Prime Minister Suga and Lee Nak-yeon, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, mentioning the Tokyo Olympics and North Korea as reasons.

However, Nihon Keizai reported that "from Japan’s perspective, a simple suspension of the former forced labor (Japanese colonial forced labor) issue is out of the question," and that Japan is in a situation where it "cannot easily accept" South Korea’s proposal to freeze the forced labor issue until the Tokyo Olympics.

In particular, Nihon Keizai analyzed that since the Korean courts are proceeding with the sale of Japanese companies’ assets related to forced labor compensation lawsuits, new conflicts may arise depending on the outcome.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.