The growing tensions in U.S.-China relations seem to have given South Korean President-elect Yoon Seok-wook some "opportunity" to move closer to the United States and take the opportunity to repair South Korea-Japan relations. The reference news network quoted Yonhap News Agency as saying that the delegation of South Korean President-elect Yoon Seok-yeon held a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Lim Fong-jeong in Tokyo, and the two sides agreed that it is necessary for South Korea and Japan to strengthen cooperation and "reach a conclusion" on outstanding bilateral issues through dialogue. After the interview, the head of the South Korean delegation, Jeong Jin-suk, said that the two sides formed a consensus on "strengthening the cooperation between South Korea and Japan."
This is the second stop of the RoK delegation after its visit to the United States, and the "outstanding bilateral issues" mentioned this time are likely to refer to the issues of "Japanese forced conscription of comfort women" and "forced conscription of laborers" that have plagued both sides before, and at the same time do not rule out the "ownership of Dokdo" that has a territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan.
Previously, due to Japan's negative attitude towards the historical problems and historical responsibilities of World War II, south Korea-Japan relations continued to deteriorate. On the issue of sovereignty over Dokdo, a military confrontation broke out between the two sides, during which there was also the incident of "South Korean warship radar illuminating the Japanese Self-Defense Forces anti-submarine aircraft", which caused the relations between the two countries to fall to the lowest point since the end of the Cold War, and even affected the cooperation between South Korea and Japan in the political, economic and cultural fields.
We know that during the campaign period, Yoon Seok-yue seized on the "negative impact of south-Japan tensions on the economy" to express his dissatisfaction with Moon Jae-in, believing that Moon's policy toward Japan was "inappropriate" . After Yin Xiyue won the general election, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Yufumi also expressed congratulations at the first time and took the initiative to extend an "olive branch" to him.
To be sure, for South Korea, improving its trade relationship with Japan is indeed one way to ease the economic downturn. Of course, if we want to solve economic problems through trade cooperation, we first need to solve political and diplomatic problems, which is also the purpose of Yin Xiyue's delegation's visit to Japan.
Considering that Yin Xiyue's delegation went to the United States before visiting Japan, it obviously shows that it has also received "strong support" from the US side in improving relations with Japan. After all, successive US governments have always hoped to establish an "Asian version of the small NATO" in Northeast Asia composed of the United States, Japan and South Korea to expand their strategic influence over Northeast Asia, especially the containment and containment of China. As long as japan and south Korea, the "old enemies," can abandon their previous resentments, then the United States can coordinate the relations and actions of these two allies, which will naturally help it "show its fists and feet" in Northeast Asia.
Of course, although the Yoon Seok-yue delegation first extended an olive branch to Japan, and the Kishida Fumio government also responded positively, considering that the relations between South Korea and Japan have been in a downturn for a long time, especially the sense of non-governmental confrontation, I am afraid that it will be difficult to completely "reconcile" the two in a short period of time, after all, "freezing three feet is not a cold day."
From a practical point of view, although the ROK and Japan have repeatedly tried to repair bilateral relations, it has always been difficult to bypass the contradictions and differences on issues left over from history. Coupled with Yoon Seok-yue's consistent capricious remarks and practices, whether South Korea-Japan relations can really ease up is still very variable.