Foreign Media Anticipate Strengthened Trade and Security Cooperation Ahead of Korea-Japan Summit

Ahead of the South Korea-Japan summit, foreign media mentioned the possibility of resuming shuttle diplomacy between the two countries and anticipated strengthened trade and security cooperation.

President Yoon Suk-yeol is shaking hands with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and taking a commemorative photo at a Korea-Japan summit held at a hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on November 13 last year.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on June 9 (local time) about President Yoon Suk-yeol's visit to Japan, describing this visit as the "resumption of two-way summit diplomacy after more than a decade," and analyzed that "tensions with North Korea and China have prompted U.S. allies to move more closely together."

It added that President Yoon "has been striving to strengthen ties with Japan under U.S. encouragement to improve cooperation in areas such as air defense in response to North Korea's advances in ballistic missile and nuclear programs," and that Japan "also desires to build regional cooperation frameworks to counter China's military and economic power."

AP News reported that "the previously unstable South Korea-Japan relationship complicated U.S. efforts to strengthen trilateral security cooperation against China's growing influence and North Korea's nuclear threat," and conveyed the changing atmosphere.

Foreign media also paid attention to the timing of the official announcement of President Yoon's visit to Japan, noting that it came shortly after South Korea proposed a solution to the forced labor compensation issue on June 6.

Bloomberg News pointed out that this announcement "came just days after the two neighboring countries suggested a solution to end the discord that had hindered cooperation from trade to security."

It also mentioned that the South Korean president's visit to Japan is the first since former President Moon Jae-in attended the G20 summit in Osaka in 2019, at which time former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe refused to hold talks with President Moon.

AFP reported that the visit was realized as the two countries "worked to ease diplomatic tensions over Japan's wartime atrocities."

Japan's Nikkei Asian Review also emphasized that the decision for the "South Korean president's first visit to Japan in four years" came shortly after South Korea announced the forced labor solution on June 6.