Although south Korean president-elect Yoon Seok-wook is still some time away from officially inaugurating, it has begun intensive diplomatic activities. According to South Korean media reports, South Korean President-elect Yoon Seok-yue plans to send a "Korea-Japan Policy Consultation Delegation" to visit Japan from April 24 to 27, local time. According to the report, during the visit to Japan, the South Korean delegation will meet with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and participate in some activities organized by Japanese political, academic and business circles. The focus of the trip was to exchange views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the ROK-Japan relationship and promote the warming of ROK-Japan relations.
It is reported that since Moon Jae-in became the president of South Korea, South Korea-Japan relations have been hovering at a low point, and the South Korean side has been demanding that Japan compensate the South Korean victims during World War II, but Japan has not acted. In addition, there is a territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan, and the "Dokdo" that South Korea actually controls, japan has always considered it to be its territory. Although the two countries have held some consultations in recent years, they have not achieved substantive results. It is reported that since December 2019, the leaders of South Korea and Japan have never held a formal bilateral meeting.
Regarding Yoon Seok-yue's willingness to improve South Korea-Japan relations, Jeong Jin-suk, head of the South Korea-Japan Policy Consultation Delegation, said in an interview with his own media that the current colding of South Korea-Japan relations is not in the common interests of South Korea and Japan. In the new situation, the ROK and Japan need to face history squarely, but they must not be bound by history, build a future-oriented ROK-Japan relationship, and bring the level of bilateral relations to the goal advocated in the "Joint Declaration on the Rok-Japan New Partnership in the 21st Century.", which is what the ROK and Japan jointly expect, which will contribute to the situation on the peninsula and even to global peace and stability.
However, in the eyes of outside public opinion, Yin Xiyue's commitment to improving South Korea-Japan relations is actually to counter China. Prior to this, Yoon Seok-yue sent a South Korean-U.S. policy consultation delegation to visit the United States. Compared with the current president Moon Jae-in, Yoon Seok-yue's stance and attitude toward China are quite tough, and he said at the beginning of his presidency that after taking office, he will strengthen the ROK-US alliance, strengthen cooperation with the United States, Japan, India, and Australia, and implement a tougher policy on China and the DPRK issue. In addition, Yoon Seok-yue also intends to invite the US military to deploy strategic bombers and attack nuclear submarines in South Korea.
Analysts said that once the relationship between South Korea and Japan improves, then the "iron triangle" composed of the United States, Japan and South Korea will be officially formed and launched, which is also a result that the United States is very happy to see. During Moon's administration, relations between South Korea and Japan have not been very good, which has also led to the inability of the United States to form an alliance between the United States, Japan, and South Korea, so the United States can only pull Japan, Australia, and India to form an anti-China alliance.
Analysts said that the alliance formed by the United States, Japan and South Korea is not only a military level of cooperation, but also an economic and trade level, for example, within this framework, the three countries may exclude China from the semiconductor supply chain. Therefore, the improvement of Relations between South Korea and Japan and even the alliance is not a good news for China, and China should pay attention to it.