| President Moon Jae-in, US President Joe Biden. © News1 Designer Kim Il-hwan |
As President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Joe Biden’s normal talks between Korea and the United States are expected to be reached sooner or later, attention is drawn to the message the leaders will give. In particular, the question is whether President Biden, who emphasizes’trilateral cooperation between the United States and Korea’, will comment on the necessity of improving Korea-Japan relations.
On the 29th, Japanese media such as the Yomiuri Shimbun and Kyodo News reported that the current issues of conflict between Japan and Korea, such as Japanese military comfort women and forced conscription lawsuits, were mentioned in the US-Japan summit call at the dawn of the previous day.
If the related report is true, there are observations that the contents of the conflict between Korea and Japan can be sufficiently covered even in the upcoming normal calls between the United States and Korea.
In addition, it is analyzed that even if President Biden does not speak, there is a possibility that Moon may first mention the issue of the conflict between Korea and Japan. Recently, President Moon is showing an active’gesture’ toward Japan.
At a New Year’s press conference on the 18th, President Moon mentioned the’diplomatic solution’ to the decision on export restrictions and forced mobilization. In addition, the 2015 Korea-Japan comfort women agreement was an’official agreement’, and the Japanese government’s position also showed an attitude of’understanding’.
Cho Jin-gu, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Far East Research Institute, said, “It is good to show our basic stance and willingness to have a sincere dialogue with Japan to resolve Korea-Japan relations (President Moon at the summit call between Korea and the United States). Said.
There are also observations that even if a dispute between Korea and Japan is mentioned, the two countries may not disclose it. This is because matters that may be sensitive diplomatically are routinely handled privately through consultations between countries concerned.
In the press release on the US-Japan normal currency released by the White House and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there was no content on the issue of the conflict between Korea and Japan. Instead, there was only mention of the US-Japan alliance, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the Indo-Pacific strategy, the kidnapping of Japanese, the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), and the response to climate change.
In addition, another point of observing the US-Korea normal currency is the US position on the North Korean nuclear issue. President Moon is working hard to reactivate the peace process on the Korean Peninsula, such as appointing former Blue House Security Officer Eui-yong Chung, who led the denuclearization negotiations as a candidate for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Some raise the observation that the United States may be able to listen to some of our needs regarding the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue in order to strengthen cooperation between the United States and Korea.
The government is known to promote a plan to carry out the ROK-US joint exercise scheduled for March in’Lowkey’, and President Biden may take the form of accepting our position on this.
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