South Korea president-elect to send team to Japan for policy talks

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South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will send a delegation to Japan this month for policy consultations on bilateral issues and cooperation in responding to threats by North Korea, his transition team said Sunday.

The delegation, led by Chung Jin-suk, a member of Yoon’s People Power Party, and also involving diplomatic experts, will arrive in Japan on April 24 and meet with lawmakers, diplomats and business leaders.

Yoon, whose inauguration is scheduled for May 10, sent a similar delegation to the United States earlier this month.

The delegation is expected to help build “foundations for cooperation in policy toward North Korea and resolving issues of concern between South Korea and Japan,” the transition team’s press secretary said.

High-level dialogue has not been held between the two countries recently, as the current administration of liberal President Moon Jae-in has clashed with Tokyo over issues stemming from Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

Yoon is widely seen as willing to improve soured bilateral ties. His delegation is also expected to discuss who should be sent as Japanese representative to the inauguration ceremony.

Seoul is said to be expecting that a senior official of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government will attend the event.

The Japanese government hopes to strengthen cooperation with South Korea under the incoming president and forge closer trilateral coordination with the United States over North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat, a government source said.

Tokyo is expected to start finalizing who will represent Japan soon while closely watching Yoon’s posture toward bilateral ties.

Since being elected in a close presidential contest in March, Yoon has called for a future-oriented approach to ties and said as much during a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Koichi Aiboshi on March 28.

“South Korea and Japan are partners that share many tasks to tackle, such as security and economic prosperity and, therefore, to overcome the current thorny relationships, it is needed to form a future-oriented partnership based on correct perspective toward history,” Yoon told the ambassador, according to his spokeswoman.

Japanese officials also appear willing to engage with the incoming Yoon administration.

“Unlike the Moon administration, we can welcome the next administration,” a senior Foreign Ministry official said. “We want to make contact at the right time.”

“What is clear is that both sides are willing to improve ties,” a high-level government official said.

At a news conference Friday, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi echoed a similar sentiment, saying, “We will communicate with the new administration at an appropriate time and level.”

Arrangements are underway for U.S. President Joe Biden to visit South Korea before visiting Japan in late May, according to a diplomatic source.

If Biden comes to Japan after meeting with Yoon, the U.S. president may raise Japan-South Korea issues in his talks with Kishida. If so, Kishida may convey to Biden that it is Tokyo’s intention to work to improve ties with Seoul.

Regarding who may be dispatched to Seoul for Yoon’s presidential inauguration, Hayashi told reporters Friday that no one has been selected yet.

In 2008, sitting Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda attended President Lee Myung-bak’s inauguration ceremony, while in 2013, former Prime Minister Taro Aso, who was then doubling as deputy prime minister and finance minister, took part in President Park Geun-hye’s ceremony.

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