Government Reaffirms Two-Track Policy on Korea-Japan Relations: 'Historical Issues and Practical Cooperation'

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] The government will maintain a two-track policy of 'past issues and practical cooperation' with Japan and strive for stable management and future-oriented development of Korea-Japan relations.

It will continue intergovernmental consultations to resolve conflict issues such as the comfort women and forced labor compensation rulings, and plans to promote improvement in Korea-Japan relations on occasions such as this year's Tokyo Olympics and the Korea-China-Japan summit.

President Moon Jae-in, at the National Security Council (NSC) plenary meeting held on the 21st, said, "We should not remain in the past with our neighboring country Japan but gather wisdom together to develop a constructive and future-oriented relationship," which is in the same context. This reaffirmed the will to improve Korea-Japan relations, which have struggled to find an exit due to export regulations and past issues.

Accordingly, the government also expressed its position that the Japanese government should show genuine efforts toward the victims in response to the Japanese government's opposition to the ruling on compensation for victims of the Japanese military's comfort women, indicating that it will not overlook past issues.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in its statement on the 23rd titled 'Position on the Japanese Side's Statement Regarding the Comfort Women Ruling,' urged, "We will continue to make every effort for an amicable resolution in consultation with the comfort women victims, but Japan must also show genuine efforts based on the spirit of responsibility, apology, and reflection it has expressed to restore the honor and dignity of the victims and heal their emotional wounds."

It also introduced, "We acknowledge that the 2015 comfort women agreement was an official agreement between the governments of Korea and Japan," while adding, "At the same time, we have stated that a true resolution cannot be achieved solely through a government-to-government agreement that does not reflect the will of the victims."

Furthermore, it emphasized, "Accordingly, the government will not make any additional claims at the government level to Japan, but it does not have the right or authority to prevent the victims from raising their issues."

The government stated, "The Japanese government must recognize that the issue of comfort women victims is an unprecedented wartime violation of women's human rights and a universal human rights violation, which breaches international human rights norms and international law."

Earlier, Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu issued a statement immediately after the Seoul Central District Court's ruling on compensation for comfort women victims, with the Japanese government as the defendant, was finalized, saying, "(This ruling) clearly violates international law and is very regrettable," and "We strongly demand once again that appropriate measures be taken immediately to correct this violation of international law."

The Japanese government has argued for dismissal of this lawsuit by invoking the principle of 'state immunity' (sovereign immunity) under customary international law, which holds that a sovereign state does not appear before another country's court, and has refused to participate in the trial from the beginning.

Regarding this, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official pointed out, "The theory of state immunity is not permanent or absolute but is continuously evolving along with the international order."

He explained, "While there is a traditional view that state immunity should apply to all sovereign acts of a state, there is also a strong view that it should be limited in cases involving serious anti-humanitarian illegal acts."

He added, "In this case, the court ruled that state immunity should not be recognized for acts that violate fundamental common human values, such as serious anti-humanitarian illegal acts, reflecting the international community's heightened awareness of human rights, which is a human rights-centered perspective."

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