Tokyo, 17 May, /AJMEDIA/
Yun Duk Min, the next South Korean ambassador to Japan under the new Yoon administration, said Monday that trust-building efforts by the countries’ leaders could help resolve issues that have sent their ties to the lowest point in decades.
Yun, a former head of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy known for his knowledge of Japan, said bilateral relations should not deteriorate any further under new South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who took office last week.
“An environment can be created for resolving difficult issues” by facilitating exchanges between the two countries’ people along with attempts to build relations of trust, Yun said in an online speech at a seminar.
Since joining Yoon’s presidential campaign, Yun served as an adviser on diplomatic affairs. In late April, he visited Japan as part of a South Korean delegation and held talks with Japanese leaders, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Yun, who obtained a doctoral degree at Japan’s Keio University and is proficient in Japanese, is also an expert on diplomatic and security affairs, including North Korea.
Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have soured due to issues mainly related to Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, such as wartime labor and “comfort women” procured for Japan’s wartime military brothels.
The two countries’ top leaders have not held an in-person, sit-down meeting since December 2019 due to the bilateral issues and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ties between the two Asian neighbors are becoming increasingly important, given increasing threats by North Korea, which has conducted a series of missile tests this year, and tensions between China and Taiwan, viewed by Beijing as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Yoon said last week that he hopes to meet with Kishida, who took the helm in October last year.
Japan maintains that wartime issues have been resolved and that South Korea should follow through on agreements aimed at resolving disputes, including a 1965 pact signed with the treaty normalizing their diplomatic ties and a 2015 deal to settle the comfort women issue.