SEOUL, South Korea — The leaders of Japan and South Korea met for a summit Sunday in Seoul, extending the amity established in a meeting last month and boosting U.S. hopes of greater security cooperation with two critical allies in the region against threats from North Korea and China.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed sympathy for the suffering of Korean forced laborers during Japan’s colonial rule and offered South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol a distinct concession in what may be a return favor for Mr. Yoon’s March initiative to break the ice and thaw long-frozen relations.
Mr. Kishida said he would give South Korean experts access to the stricken Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan, heavily damaged by a combined earthquake-tsunami in 2011. Lack of transparency over Tokyo’s planned release of irradiated water stored at the facility into the Pacific has exasperated and angered South Koreans for years.
Sunday’s visit — the first by a Japanese prime minister to South Korea since 2018, a year when bilateral relations plunged into an abyss — is being hailed as a return to long-stalled “shuttle diplomacy” between the two key U.S. East Asian allies.
Visiting Tokyo last month, Mr. Yoon took a major domestic political risk by offering to move past an emotional, legal and historical dispute between the two countries over forced labor practices and other abuses during World War II. In South Korea, where memories of Japanese aggression are ever-fresh, that move sent Mr. Yoon’s already low approval ratings through the floor.
Mr. Yoon made clear Sunday he was not backing down.
“It’s hard to make a good flow of change for the first time, but once done, it is often popular,” he said, according to a text sent to reporters by the presidential office. “I think that is the current trend of Korea-Japan relations.”
Sunday’s developments will almost certainly be warmly welcomed in the White House, State Department and Pentagon.
A cordial relationship between Seoul and Tokyo — with which Washington maintains two separate, bilateral alliances — opens up possibilities to bolster trilateral military and intelligence cooperation. Japan and South Korea both host U.S. troops, and their location off China’s eastern flank is highly strategic.
South Korea offers American troops a foothold on the Asian mainland, while its west coast and its naval base on the island of Jeju are ideal for monitoring Chinese naval deployments. Japan’s Ryukyu archipelago dominates key access points for Chinese naval units into the wider Pacific, and covers Taiwan’s northeast approaches.
Nuclear concerns
Upon arrival in Seoul, Mr. Kishida made the customary visit to the National Cemetery, then huddled with Mr. Yoon. That meeting was followed by a summit between larger entourages and a joint press briefing. The two leaders then dined together with their wives.
Mr. Kishida’s offer to allow South Korean experts access to the hugely sensitive Daiichi site will likely prove significant.
“I decided to accept the dispatch of an on-site inspection team of South Korean experts this month so that the South Korean people may understand this issue,” Mr. Kishida said.
Tokyo has announced plans to release irradiated coolant water from the plant into the ocean this year, insisting it has been treated and is safe. That decision has been supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but has been slammed by China, South Korea and international environmental groups such as Greenpeace.
Mr. Kishida, who said he echoes past Tokyo administrations’ statements of wartime contrition, offered his own nod to the victims of Japanese colonial aggression.
“My heart hurts when I think of the many people who endured terrible suffering and grief under the difficult circumstances of the time,” he said.
In a related positive development for Mr. Yoon, one of the three surviving South Korean wartime forced laborers reportedly has agreed to accept the compensation package offered by Seoul. That could deflate related feared new lawsuits against Japanese companies.
The summit also floated the possibility of Japan joining provisions of the “Washington Declaration” — the document released after Mr. Yoon’s talks with President Biden late last month in Washington.
Among other things, the declaration formalizes Seoul-Washington communication channels regarding nuclear weapons use in the event of an attack from North Korea.
“We do not rule out Japan’s participation,” Mr. Yoon said. “The ‘Washington Declaration’ is not completed, and we have to fill in the details.”
Korea and Japan are also in talks to improve intelligence-sharing on North Korean missile launches.
Past problems, future potential
Mr. Kishida on Monday is scheduled to meet South Korean parliamentarians and business groups before returning to Tokyo.
After the diplomatic disasters of 2018, Seoul and Tokyo struck each other off their respective “white lists” of preferential trade partners. Under Mr. Kishida and Mr. Yoon, these trade relations are being repaired, which could provide a major boost for global supply chains.
While in some areas — such as autos — the two nations are competitors, in areas such as semiconductors the two economies are complementary. South Korea is the world’s largest supplier of memory chips and Japan is one of the most important suppliers of chip components, chemicals and manufacturing machinery.
Both leaders face regional security jitters. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has smashed the status quo, China is upgrading its military while conducting aggressive rhetorical diplomacy, and North Korea continues to expand its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals.
The two men will meet again when Mr. Kishida hosts the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima starting May 19, to which South Korea is an invited guest. Mr. Yoon and Mr. Kishida are scheduled to hold a trilateral summit with Mr. Biden on the sidelines of the summit.
Correction: A previous version of the story incorrectly described a South Korean coast.
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.
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