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As South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol reaches out to Japan, hopes are high he’ll ‘change the tenor’ of ties
- A delegation representing Yoon, who’ll be sworn in on May 10, met Japanese PM Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Tuesday
- Both sides want to improve ties that have deteriorated under Moon Jae-in, amid challenges including Ukraine and threats from China and North Korea
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There are high hopes that the incoming South Korean government’s swift outreach to Japan will lead to a reset in the recently testy relationship, although there is still a degree of caginess in Tokyo and a lingering sense of “once bitten, twice shy”, analysts say.
A delegation representing Yoon Suk-yeol, who will be sworn in as the new South Korean president on May 10, met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Tuesday, with the two sides agreeing on the need to improve bilateral relations that have sunk to historic lows over the last four years.
Yoon’s representatives, headed by Chung Jin-suk, deputy speaker of the national assembly, gave the Japanese leader a personal letter from the president-elect.
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“We need to resolve issues lying between Japan and South Korea,” said Kishida, adding that closer ties are more important than ever, given the challenges endangering the international order and security, including the war in Ukraine and the threats posed by North Korea and China.
“This delegation, at the initiative of the incoming South Korean administration, is an emphatic indication that Yoon wants to change the tenor of the dynamics of Japan-Korea relations,” said Stephen Nagy, an associate professor of international relations at Tokyo’s International Christian University.
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