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Friday 18 august 2023

Biden aims to nudge Japan and South Korea toward greater unity

retaliation for South Ko-
rean court rulings in 2018
that ordered Japanese
companies to compensate
Korean workers for abu-
sive treatment and forced
labor during World War II,
when the Korean Peninsula
was under Japanese occu-
pation.
Japan also tightened ex-
port controls on key chemi-
cals used by South Korean
companies to make semi-
conductors, prompting
South Korea to file a com-
plaint with the World Trade
Organization and remove
Japan from its own list of
countries with preferred
trade status.
The ties have improved sig-
nificantly in recent months.
Yoon proposed an initiative
in March to resolve disputes
stemming from compensa-
tion for wartime Korean
forced laborers. He an-
President Joe Biden, center, meets with South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, nounced that South Korea
during the NATO summit in Madrid, Wednesday, June 29, 2022. would use its own funds to
Associated Press
compensate Koreans en-
Continued from Front among the three countries ident Jimmy Carter brought oppose Yoon’s handling of slaved by Japanese com-
as they face an increasing- together Egyptian President the forced labor issue with panies before the end of
The Japan-South Korea re- ly complicated Pacific. Anwar Sadat and Israeli Japan. World War II.
lationship is a delicate one The expected major an- Prime Minister Menachem Biden is expected to im- Yoon also traveled to To-
because of differing views nouncements include plans Begin in September 1978 press on Yoon and Kishida kyo in March for talks with
of World War II history and to expand military cooper- for talks that established that the U.S., Japan and Kishida, the first such visit in
Japan’s colonial rule over ation on ballistic defenses a framework for a historic South Korea are at a cru- more than 12 years. Kish-
the Korean Peninsula. Past and make the summit an peace treaty between Is- cial moment and need to ida reciprocated with a
efforts to tighten secu- annual event. The leaders rael and Egypt in March stay on the same page. visit to Seoul in May and
rity cooperation between are also expected to detail 1979. In the midst of World “I think it’s fair to say that expressed sympathy for the
Seoul and Tokyo have pro- in the communique plans War II, President Franklin a few months ago both suffering of Korean forced
gressed with fits and starts. to invest in technology for Roosevelt and British Prime President Yoon and Prime laborers during Japan’s co-
But the White House hopes a three-way crisis hotline Minister Winston Churchill Minister Kishida might have lonial rule,
the current rapproche- and offer an update on met at the retreat — then been a bit uncomfort- “The world is changing rap-
ment offers an opportunity the progress the countries known as Shangri-La — to able with the prospect of idly, and I think this is appar-
for a historic shift in the re- have made in sharing ear- plan the Italian campaign a meeting at Camp Dav- ent to both the Japanese
lationship. ly-warning data on missile that would knock Benito id,” said Christopher John- and South Koreans,” said
“What we have seen over launches. Mussolini out of the war. stone, a senior adviser and Sheila Smith, a senior fel-
the course of last couple In picking Camp David, Biden frequently visits Japan chair at the Center low for Asia-Pacific studies
of months is a breathtak- where presidents over 80 Camp David with family, for Strategic and Interna- at the Council on Foreign
ing kind of diplomacy that years have hosted historic but Friday’s summit will be tional Studies. Relations.
has been led by coura- peace summits and in- the first time he has used “Both would have been Yoon in remarks this week
geous leaders in both Ja- timate leader-to-leader the retreat to host interna- hesitant to endorse any to mark the 78th anniversa-
pan and South Korea,” said talks, Biden is looking to tional leaders. implication that somehow ry of Korea’s liberation from
Kurt Campbell, Biden’s top demonstrate the impor- Kishida before departing the U.S. was brokering an Japan’s colonial rule said
Indo-Pacific adviser said at tance of relations with Tokyo for Washington on improvement in Japan- the summit “will set a new
an event at the Brookins In- South Korea and Japan. Thursday called the sum- ROK ties,” he said, referring milestone in trilateral co-
stitution in Washington on His administration says it re- mit a “historic occasion to to the Republic of Korea. operation.” He also made
Wednesday. “They have mains determined to place bolster trilateral strategic “But we’re in a very differ- plain that improved ties
sometimes, against the ad- greater foreign policy focus cooperation based on our ent stage now.” with Japan was crucial for
vice of their own counselors on the Pacific even as the stronger-than-ever bilateral Kishida and Yoon came to regional stability.
and staff, taken steps that U.S. grapples with the fall- relations with the United office months apart in late “As partners that cooper-
elevate the Japan, South out of the Russian invasion States and South Korea.” 2021 and early 2022 as their ate on security and the
Korean relationship into a of Ukraine. Earlier this year, The relationship mending countries’ relationship was economy, South Korea and
new plane.” Biden honored Yoon with a has come with a signifi- in one of the roughest peri- Japan will be able to jointly
Biden administration of- state visit and picked Kish- cant measure of political ods since the two countries contribute to peace and
ficials say the leaders will ida’s predecessor, Prime risk for Yoon as bitterness officially normalized rela- prosperity across the globe
announce in their summit Minister Yoshihide Suga, for in his country over Japan’s tions in 1965. while collaborating and ex-
communique a series of the first face-to-face visit of colonial rule from 1910 to Japan suspended South changing in a future-orient-
joint efforts that aim to in- his presidency. 1945 lingers. Polls show a Korea’s preferred trade ed manner,” Yoon said.q
stitutionalize cooperation The retreat was where Pres- majority of South Koreans status in 2019 in apparent