Japan, South Korea Agree to Mend Ties After Ice-Breaking Talks

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean premier Lee Nak-yon agreed they must work to ease the feud between the two neighbors after their highest-level meeting in more than a year.

Both sides issued statements expressing a desire to repair ties after a roughly 20-minute meeting between the two leaders. Lee delivered a letter to Abe from South Korean President Moon Jae-in that, according to the Yonhap News Agency, described Japan as a valuable partner in securing a lasting peace with North Korea and urged efforts to resolve the their disputes.

Abe told Lee that relations must not be left in their current state, which he described as “very severe,” according to the Japanese foreign ministry. Lee urged Abe to continue communications and exchanges, South Korea’s foreign ministry said separately.

The meeting is the most positive signal since South Korean courts issued a series of rulings last year backing the claims of people forced to work for Japanese companies during the country’s 1910-45 occupation of the Korean Peninsula. Abe last met South Korea’s president in September 2018 and passed up a chance to meet him for formal talks during Group of 20 events in Osaka in June.

Tensions have rapidly escalated, with Japan striking South Korea from a list of trusted export destinations and imposing restrictions on the sale of specialized materials essential to the country’s semiconductor- and display-manufacturing industries. South Korea responded by announcing its withdrawal from an intelligence-sharing pact, as its citizens boycotted Japanese goods and travel.

After largely sitting on the sidelines as tensions re-emerged, the Trump administration has recently pushed the two sides to try to work out their differences. The U.S. has been particularly critical of South Korea’s exit from the intelligence pact, since it’s relying on cooperation between its two closest Asian allies to help counter China and North Korea.

As the meeting started in Tokyo, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa offered support for the discussions and said in Seoul her government will work to improve ties with its neighbor through dialogue. She also cautioned that Japan needs to withdraw its export curbs for ties to improve.

The pretext for Lee’s visit was his attendance at Emperor Naruhito’s enthronement ceremony Tuesday. “I do not expect everything to be solved during my visit to Japan, but I do have ambitions of finding a clue in solving something,” he told a group of ethnic Koreans in Japan, according to a report published Wednesday by the Seoul Economic Daily.

Japan argues that all Korean compensation claims were settled by a 1965 treaty that established ties between the two countries. Moon has said the U.S.-brokered agreement didn’t take into account the emotional suffering of the victims of Japan’s occupation.

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Each country is the other’s third-largest trading partner and neither can afford a damaging economic fight as global growth cools. South Korean exports are poised for an 11th monthly decline and semiconductor sales, which account for the largest share of exports, fell 29% in the first 20 days of October, according to the Korea Customs Service.

The number of South Koreans visiting Japan dropped by about 58% in September from the year earlier period, data showed. If unresolved, the trend could undercut Abe’s tourism drive ahead of the Tokyo Olympics next year.

“The current dismal situation does not benefit either country,” said Kak Soo Shin, South Korea’s ambassador to Japan from 2011 to 2013.

(Updates headline and first sentence with meeting outcome.)