Japan’s PM Vows Stronger Cooperation in Landmark Visit to South Korea

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a joint press conference after their meeting at the presidential office in Seoul, May 7, 2023. Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has vowed to deepen cooperation with South Korea to tackle escalating global security challenges in the region as he became the first Japanese leader to visit the country in more than a decade.

Kishida met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on May 7 for a second time since their meeting in Tokyo in March, when both promised to turn the page on years of animosity over their countries’ wartime disputes.

“The situation in the international community makes cooperation between Japan and the ROK all the more indispensable,” Kishida said at a joint news conference, referring to South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.

The Japanese leader said the two governments agreed on the need to strengthen security cooperation to address North Korea’s ongoing “provocative actions,” while keeping the door open for dialogue.

“Our shuttle diplomacy continues. Two weeks from now, I will welcome President Yoon to Hiroshima [for the G-7 summit],” he said. “We confirmed our close cooperation on various issues facing the international community.”

Kishida said negotiations on reviving their countries’ military intelligence-sharing pact were in progress to counter the North Korean socialist regime’s nuclear and missile threats. The pact, signed in 2016, had been stalled since 2019 due to their wartime forced-labor dispute.

The Japanese leader expressed that his “heart aches” for the many Koreans who suffered through a very difficult and sad experience in the “harsh environment” of Japan’s 1910–1945 colonial rule.

“There are various histories between Japan and South Korea, but it is important for Japan to carry on the efforts of its predecessors who overcame difficult times and to cooperate with President Yoon and South Korea toward the future,” he said.

Yoon said the cooperation between Japan and South Korea is essential “not only for the common interests of both countries but also for world peace and prosperity,” citing the “grave” international situation.

“In a situation where liberal democracy, which has been the foundation of peace and prosperity in the international community, is under threat. Korea and Japan, which share universal values, must work together in the international community with stronger validity,” Yoon told reporters.

South Korea’s government had earlier decided to use local funds to compensate victims of forced labor instead of pushing Japanese companies to pay compensation in order to improve ties with Japan.

The finance ministers of both countries also agreed to revive their summit “at an appropriate time this year,” which had been stalled for more than seven years due to the countries’ wartime disputes.

The Washington Declaration

U.S. President Joe Biden (R) welcomes South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to the White House during an arrival ceremony in Washington, on April 26, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Kishida’s visit to South Korea came days after Yoon concluded his six-day visit to the United States on April 29, during which Yoon signed the Washington Declaration with President Joe Biden to reaffirm their countries’ 70-year treaty.

The Washington Declaration outlines a set of U.S. extended deterrence measures, which will involve deploying U.S. strategic assets—nuclear forces—on the Korean Peninsula.

Biden warned that any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies is “unacceptable and will result in the end of whatever regime.”

In the declaration, South Korea expressed “full confidence” in U.S. extended deterrence commitments, and Washington pledged to make “every effort” to consult with South Korea on “any possible nuclear weapons employment” in the region.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to make the United States and South Korea realize that they “are bound to lose more than they get and face a greater threat” over their “expansion of war drills in the region.”

The country has conducted a series of missile launches this year, including one involving a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-18, and launched its nuclear-capable underwater drone.

The United States has persisted in engaging in “direct talks” with North Korea without preconditions in favor of a diplomatic solution, but North Korea rebuffed these efforts.