The gap in historical awareness between Korea and Japan was too wide for the leaders of the two countries to plug in one summit. This sums up the first one-on-one on Nov. 2 between President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Seoul summit was the first of its kind between the two countries in more than three years. As such, it raised expectations for a breakthrough in normalizing the frayed bilateral relationship.
Yet the meeting must have been disappointing to those who expected substantial progress in resolving the long-standing issue of the Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery during World War II.
After more than 1 1/2 hours of talks, the two leaders simply announced that they agreed to “speed up” the ongoing negotiations to quickly resolve the thorny problem.
The agreement, however, does represent a step forward — in the sense that the two leaders refrained from spending the whole meeting simply arguing their case, remaining as far apart as ever.
By agreeing to accelerate the bilateral talks on the matter, Abe expressed his will not to leave it unresolved. He also shared the view with Park that the problem needs to be resolved sooner rather than later.
Nevertheless, it would be naive to expect an early settlement, given the widely different perspectives of the two sides.
Tokyo’s basic position is that the sexual slavery issue has already been settled in legal terms by the 1965 treaty that normalized ties between both sides.
Tokyo says it has been discussing the issue with Seoul not because it has any legal responsibility to compensate the so-called “comfort women” but because it wants to fulfill its moral obligations.
Yet in Seoul’s view, the treaty was simply about settling claims stemming from Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea and was not about compensation for its gross human rights abuses, an issue that did not even surface at the time of signing the treaty.
In this regard, the Seoul government demands that Tokyo acknowledge the human rights violations committed by the Japanese Imperial Army, apologize to the victims of the abuses, and officially compensate them.
Given the wide awareness gap, it is hardly enough for the leaders to simply tell their officials to speed up the negotiations. The two sides have thus far held nine rounds of talks but failed to make any significant progress.
A breakthrough can be reached only when Abe commits himself to addressing Seoul’s long-running grudge. If he seeks a genuine reconciliation with Seoul, he needs to be more willing to heal the wounds Japan had inflicted on it. For this, he should have the courage to face up to history.
While the sex slavery problem dominated the Seoul summit, the two sides managed to discuss cooperation in other fields. It is worth noting that the two leaders agreed to work together for Seoul’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. To join the TPP, Korea needs the consent of all 12-founding members, including Japan.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between Korea and Japan. For mutual prosperity in the coming 50 years, they need to put the relationship on a firmer ground. The Seoul summit was the first step in that direction. The two sides should keep the ball rolling.
