2023-05-02 20:00:30
President Yoon Seok-yeol shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida while taking a commemorative photo at the official residence of the Prime Minister in Tokyo, Japan in March. yunhap news
As Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to Korea is scheduled for the 7th and 8th, attention is focused on the message he will bring when he visits Korea following 5 years and 3 months as Japanese Prime Minister. As President Yoon Seok-yeol put forward concessions while enduring criticism of “humiliation diplomacy” in March, there are many opinions that Japan needs a “corresponding response,” but it is not expected to be easy to expect. The biggest reason why I have no choice but to make this judgment is the way this visit to Korea was made public. It is common for the schedules of the heads of state’s foreign visits to be announced simultaneously in both countries following discussions between diplomatic authorities. However, this time, it was confirmed following repeating the unprecedented shock of Japan’s ‘unilateral announcement’ twice. The schedule for Prime Minister Kishida’s visit to Korea was first disclosed through a report on the 30th of last month. In other words, the Japanese government leaked unconfirmed ‘sensitive information’ to the Japanese media, making Prime Minister Kishida’s visit to Korea a ‘established fact’. Of course, this is a tactic that Japan often uses when setting sensitive diplomatic schedules. President Yoon’s visit to Japan on March 16 was also first reported through March 6. However, at that time, the two governments made an official announcement at the same time three days later.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (left) walks with Ghana’s Vice President Mahamudu Baumia as they arrive at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, the capital of Ghana, on the 1st. Accra/AFP Yonhap News
This time, things were very different. Prime Minister Kishida met with reporters in Ghana, Africa, where he visited on the 1st (the morning of the 2nd, Korean time) and said, “If circumstances permit, adjustments are being made to visit Korea on a 7-8 day schedule.” Just as he himself said, “if all circumstances allow” and “adjustment is in progress,” he unilaterally announced an unconfirmed schedule and put ‘spoken pressure’ on Korea to accept it. In the end, it seems that the presidential office accepted this to continue the trend of improving relations ahead of the G7 summit and the Korea-US-Japan summit on the 19th and 21st of this month, attended by US President Joe Biden. The Office of the President of the Republic of Korea and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan officially announced the schedule for Prime Minister Kishida’s visit to Korea by issuing a brief press release without an agenda at around 3:00 pm on the 2nd. What were the ‘circumstances’ that prevented the visit to Korea? It is unlikely that President Yoon, who values trilateral cooperation among South Korea, the US, and Japan, would oppose Prime Minister Kishida’s visit to Korea or schedules. However, the presidential office, which has to think regarding domestic public opinion in Korea, may have requested in an unspoken way that Prime Minister Kishida bring an ‘apology message’ in response to President Yoon’s ‘decision’. Experts in Korea and Japan are also pouring out opinions that this time it is Prime Minister Kishida’s turn to show sincerity. However, when we turn our eyes to Japanese politics, the situation is not easy. Prime Minister Kishida won the by-election for members of the National Assembly and the unification local election held on the 23rd of last month, but he had to be very nervous regarding the progress of the Japan Restoration Society, which is ideologically farther to the right than the LDP. The title of the front page of the next day was ‘Careless Liberal Democratic Party, Unexpected Classic’. After successfully completing the summit meeting of seven major countries in Hiroshima, a regional constituency, the calculation method of dissolving the House of Representatives to lay the foundation for a ‘long-term regime’ was somewhat twisted. Prime Minister Kishida, who has a prudent personality who ‘does not cross even if he knocks on a stone bridge’, may have avoided the ‘decision’ that harms the approval rating this time. The president’s office also declined to comment. Spokesman Lee Do-woon said, “There are many pending issues between South Korea and Japan, but the most important are security and economic cooperation issues. I think it will be discussed mainly in that part,” he said. At the meeting between National Security Office Director Cho Tae-yong and National Security Agency Director Takeo Akiba, which will be held in Seoul on the 3rd and 4th, it seems likely that they will go to ‘last persuasion’, but it seems difficult to get the desired result. By Gil Yun-hyeong and Kim Mi-na, staff reporter [email protected]
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