Basic Relations News Today

Rise of Shinzo Abe administration marks distinct change of attitude

For one local beer aficionado, the recent increase in the variety of alcoholic beverages available at convenience stores has been noticeable and -- to a moderate degree -- welcome. "Various Japanese beer brands are now part of the 'Buy four cans of imported beer for 10,000 won ($7.50)' deal," 32-year-old Lee Hyun-soo told The Korea Herald. "So I thought, 'Why not relish their rich flavor...

Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol hopes to ease tensions with Japan through the 2023 plan to resolve the forced labourers dispute, but any success hinges on public support.

The long unresolved forced labor dispute nears closure, with South Korea deciding to shoulder victim compensation through donations. 

The Yoon government is seeking a resolution of the wartime labor issue but has yet to convince South Korean lawsuit parties who want money, or a wary Japan.

“The Korean crisis contributes to the general dynamic of militarization underway on the Eurasian continent and in the Indo-Pacific, with its attendant humanitarian disasters, from Ukraine to Burma, as it contributes to the acceleration of global warming that has spiralled out of control.”

The winds of political change swept through South Korea in early 2022. Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative and former prosecutor general, triumphed in the presidential election. As the incoming president seeks a new direction for Seoul’s foreign policy, perhaps the most politically fraught and sensitive part of his agenda is improving South Korea’s frayed relations with its former colonizer, Japan. Better relations will benefit both countries, but their leaders will need to be careful about how th...

In 1965, Japan and South Korea signed numerous treaties and agreements to normalize relations, including the Treaty on Basic Relations reestablishing diplomatic relations and a Claims Agreement settling property claims among the two countries and their nationals. These agreements have failed to resolve bilateral tensions stemming from the claims of Koreans who were subjected to forced labor by Imperial Japan during World War II. Some parties have called for a legal resolution based on the arbitr...

“We must shatter the non-peaceful and non-popular cracked alliances which have been fueled the vicious spiral of militarization and nuclear escalation in the areas.”

Shunji Hiraiwa, PhD, of Nanzan University’s Asian and Pacific Studies Center warns China and Russia are waiting for Japan and South Korea to bungle the issue.