Link: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20201109_28/
South Korea’s intelligence chief is currently visiting Japan, to discuss bilateral relations with Japanese government officials. Park Jie-won met with Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday, whom he has had a good relationship with for a long time. Two expected points of discussion are court rulings on compensation for wartime labor, and ongoing issues with North Korea. South Korean president Moon Jae-in has made it a goal to host a trilateral summit with Japan and China by the end of the year, but the Japanese government believes prime minister Suga will not visit South Korea until the wartime labor issue is addressed.
This article is important because it puts South Korea and Japan’s relationship into perspective, Japan and Korea aren’t technically allies but since they are both allies of the US, they have a military agreement and give minimal military assistance to each other. The wartime labor issue discussed is about a court ruling forcing a Japanese firm to compensate Korean men who worked for them during World War Two. Aside from their military, Korea is in what they consider an economic war with Japan, from a global perspective it is just recognized as a trade dispute. This dispute regards Japan’s request to put a hold on export control dialogue for three years; South Korea did not cooperate. I believe these nations will never have a perfect relationship, but as long as they are allies with the US they will have to tolerate each other. A tarnished relationship between these two countries could mean a lack of military assistance of Japan’s end, if North Korea were to ever start another war.
To take a deeper look into the reasoning for Jie-won’s visit to Japan we can use the levels of analysis. From the individual perspective, we observe South Korean president Moon Jae-in, volunteering to host a trilateral summit with Japan and China could perhaps be an attempt to create an economic agreement of some sort, given China has done tremendous export numbers in the midst of a pandemic. On a domestic level, we take a look at the rather harsh economic relationship between Japan and South Korea, caused by their trade dispute described earlier. We do not need to exceed past the domestic level in this situation since only this specific region of Asia Pacific is affected. No conclusion of this visit will be drawn yet, as Jie-won’s visit with Japanese government officials isn’t scheduled until Thursday.