In the past u. S. Experts and officials have always had really private sometimes stern messages for both sides to take auction to move forward and we will see how are panelists come down on that issue today. And we really have a group of stiller panelists and i will introduce them later but first we have for what many of you will be a surprise guest, we only heard formal confirmation late yesterday that mike will begin the opening remarks, mr. Napper, his appearance may not be on the website yet and people may not have been aware of it, but mr. Knapper, member of senior Foreign Department of state and hes serving as the Deputy Assistant secretary for korea and japan and i first met mark when he was the head of the political military unit in the embassy in tokyo, well, probably more years than either one of us would want to admit and since then hes had any number of jobs, any number of business cards i think i have in my collection, its not to say he cant keep a job, expertise on so many areas has been recognized, he has served multiple postings in tokyo, seoul, hanoi and baghdad, director for Indian Affairs and more recently he was deputy chief of mission at embassy in seoul. Hes twice worked in north korea, in 1997 as state Department Representative and in 2000 as the advanced team for secretary of state to pyongyang, recipient of number awards from trust department of state including the secretary of states distinguished service award, the nations highest highest diplomatic honor, hes a graduate of Princeton University and also studied at university of tokyo, go panthers, intensative japanese program, the Army War College and mark, when i was at the national war college, army beat us, and just if that wasnt enough to be envy enough, he speaks, japanese, korean and vietnamese. He would not be taking questions and answers but he would be able to provide opening remarks to us, so, mark, please. [applause] thanks very much, bruce, generous introduction. The old joke wishing my parents were here to hear that. My dad would have smiled and my mom would have believed everything he just said, but thank you, honor to be here and i apologize for the surprise nature, final nature of my being able to join this today, i appreciate you for allowing know speak, great to be here with so many people who are committed to building stronger ties between 3 countries, United States, japan and the republic of korea. Thank you all for your interest in this important subject, thank you all for taking the time to be here especially the panelists, all good friends of mine who are here to discuss and hopefully come up with some great ideas for how we can move the relationship between japan and korea, but also among u. S. And japan and korea forward. Todays topic is disputes and the way forward and a lot to talk about in terms of economic and security challenges as well as implications for u. S. Strategic objectives, i would like to spend briefly on my time to give a review of what we consider to be the key drivers of peace, prosperity for the past 6 decades and, of course, those two drivers are the u. S. Alliances and friendships with japan and the republic of korea. And the bottom line for us is that thanks to these Strong Alliance relationships the u. S. Enjoys all three countries have been able to together promote peace, security and prosperity throughout the indopacific region and this has been untold benefit toll 3 of our countries and many others. Our Alliance Relationships have allowed us as over decades we have taken some of the most pressing challenges since world war ii, whether it was the challenge of the soviet union during cold war or whether it was the threat posed by north Koreas Nuclear missile programs or whether its the challenges posed by other nations in the region who would seek to overturn the existing economic order and impose their will upon other countries. And today our Close Relationships with japan are okay while originally security alliances created under vastly different circumstances, these close friendships now span full range of human endeavor from trade and investment linkages to cooperation on regional and global issues and we believe that in spite of difficulties today these relationships are well positioned for the future as we continue to take on together shared challenges based upon our shared values and interests. And while our security treaty commitments to japan do remain the cornerstone of relationship of two countries and our key, of course, to regional security, they in no way define or limit the current state of our relationships. Our 3 countries share bonds based on values whether its our commitment to human rights and freedom of religion or commitment to rule of law, whether its our commitment to free and open markets, whether its our commitment to High Standards for the free flow of commerce and trade or whether its our commitment to the establishment of an inclusive architecture for regional and global trade and investment. And when it comes to our investment relationship, our economies are intertwined in a way that is uncommon around the world, both japan as we all know are among the United States largest trading and Investment Partners and we seek always to deep further our economic ties with these two countries. With japan we hope this year to expand relationship even further with Free Trade Agreement and with the rok, we will continue efforts to implement recently amended trade agreement. Beyond agreements, investment agreements, we also share with japan and korea similar vision for growth and prosperity in the indopacific region. A vision thats marketoriented, guided by a commitment to good governments. With japan we have incorporated now for more than a year in support of President Trumps indopacific strategy, together we have embarked on several shared efforts to promote our common vision of free and open indo pacific and these efforts with japan include developing Regional Energy markets, building necessary infrastructure and promoting digital connectivity so that free and indopacific as free and open internet. Similarly with south korea, president moon jaein has endorsed indopacific strategy which we believe has significant overlap with that of our own country and this overlap between our two strategies we believe will enable us to pursue initiatives across a range of issues, global health, energy, ouration or resource management. And beyond e investment, we are working both with japan and south korea on a number of regional and global challenges and together with the two allies we Work Together to combat terrorism, to combat piracy, violent extremism, stall weapons of mass destruction, Health Security in africa, Work Together to promote human rights and contribute Economic Development around the world and provide development assist assistance and its not bilateral, our corporation is trilateral, whether its promoting Women Empowerment or Development Assistance around the world. So this brings us to the subject of the current difficulties between japan and the republic of korea. As ally and friend of both countries more than ever it is critical to ensure that there are strong and Close Relationships productive and constructive relationships between and among our 3 countries. And this is particularly necessary at this time in the face of shared challenges posed by north korea, russia and chine only have to look at the recent joint patrol by china and russia aircraft as direct challenge to 3 countries in an attempt to take advantage of the south korea relations, we must not met challengers in the region drive further wedge between and among 3 countries. We believe that japan and korea each suffer consequences when bilateral ties worsen and we believe that each bears responsibility for improving relations. We believe that some soul searching is in order about political decisions that have damaged bilateral trust in recent months and by the same token we believe that prudence is required to prevent tensions from contaminating the economic and security aspects of japan, south korea ties, calm confident words from National Leaders we believe will generate a similar response from their nations. We hope and we believe that japan and korea can find the space for Creative Solutions and we, the United States, will continue engaging on this issue and stand ready to facilitate dialing dialogue between allies, we are all stronger and northeast asia is safer when the United States, japan and the republic of korea Work Together in solidarity and friendship and, of course, much work remains, we are confident that we will get through this difficult period and remain unified in promoting our shared values and achieving our shared objectives including promoting peace and prosperity for the peoples of three countries and entire region, thank you very much. [applause] i would like to get my first panelist. Its often then said that our panelists need no introduction and the 6 we have today really i think show that to be the case. If you dont know who the 6 people are you really havent been working the issue very long and even my abbreviated listing of their accomplishments and their authorships and credentials goes on really for a long time, but scott snyder is senior fellow for korea studies and director of the program on u. S. Korea policy at council and foreign relations, author of numerous books, including south korea at the cross roads, coauthor of the japansouth korea identity clash and then perhaps one of his oldest books but one i still find to be the best on north korean negotiating behavior is his book negotiating on the edge, north korea negotiating behavior. Prior, mr. Snyder was at the Asia Foundation as well as u. S. Institute of peace, our next panelist, senior fellow and codirector of the East Asia Program and director of the Japan Program at the stimson center, before that she worked at center for strategic and International Studies and special assistant for Political Affairs at the embassy of japan in washington. Numerous publications, most recent being balancing between Nuclear Deterrence and disarmament and lost in translation, u. S. Defense innovation and northeast asia. Shes a recipient of the incentive award and letter of appreciation for ministry of National Policy of japan. Riley walters is a policy analysts in the asia for asia economy and technology here at the Heritage Foundation and our asia study center, specializes in northeast asian Macro Economic issues as well as foreign investment, emerging technologies and kinder cybersecurity, lived in japan while attending sofia university, holds masters and bachelors degrees from Mason University and fluent in japanese. Ly turn over to you scott to get us started. Okay, well, thank you, bruce, its always a pleasure and honor when bruce calls on on me to contribute. And i also just want to say that i fully endorse and agree with what mark knapper had to say and the way i would characterize it a call to statesmanship by our japanese and south korean allies. Now, i feel like im a bit of at a bit of disadvantage there because im supposed to describe the south korean view on a panel that focuses on the economy when im really focused more on the political and security dimensions of u. S. Asia relations, but and so i apologize if i cant stay completely in my lane but what i want to do is describe south koreas response to Prime Minister abes export restrictions and potential removal of white list and tie it to broader context and so i think that the structure of my presentation is kind of like watching a video of someone peeling an an onion backwards, south korea and japan are significant trading partners of each other, over 1,000 strategic goods are likely to be affected by japans removal of south korea from the white list. South korea bought 17 of japans exports of chemicals for electronics and japans chemicals industry employs almost 900,000 people. South koreas boycotts of japanese goods mean loss consumer good sales and decline in south korean tourism to japan, last year 7 and a half million South Koreans visited japan. We know that Samsung Electronics are likely to take hit and this is beyond the other contextual issues that are affecting the stock markets and the Economic Indicators of in asia from the u. S. China tariff war and domestic economic stagnation. So what was the south Korean Response to abes export control announcements . Well, i would describe the response in south korea as one of shock, alarm, indignation. I think South Koreans were gasped because they not only considered japans criticism of south koreas unfounded but japan deliberately making false accusations to undermine international ability to have south korean regime and felt that japan was trying to create an excuse to retaliate against south korea for other issues. South koreans perceive japans announcement as coercive threat aimed at imposing significant cost at economy and interfering in a south korean judiciary ruling that victims of japan force labor earn compensation. Now i see 3 name policy response s through which south korea has pursued its case since that announcement, the first was a campaign to spotlight japans infringing on wto procedures at the wto including presentations in geneva and south korean government officials have focused on their argument that japans claims are groundless, at the same time weve seen south Korean NationalAssembly Representatives point out that there are a loft japanese components that have been revealed to have gone to north korea in the un panel of experts reports, they are challenging the idea that south korea has been the source of leakage of sensitive technologies to north korea. And japan is has responded with its own response to south koreas efforts to discredit japans claims. The second line of response by south korea has been an effort to draw the u. S. Into the dispute to turn around japans spread of history dispute to the economic sphere, but i dont know that that effort has been terribly successful. U. S. Is Still Standing aside from getting involving as a quote, unquote, mediator in this dispute. I would say the third line of response in south korea, in some ways this is the most interesting and attention grabbing has really been the unleashing of Korean Nationalist outrage through boycotts of japanese products and i think that this has taken two forms, one more negative in my view and the other more positive. The negative aspect is includes social Media Campaign from the blue house that insist that south korea will never be defeated by japan and doubling down on the idea of a peace economy that meets the two koreas together to counter japans threat to korean economic security. And also in the korean media we have seen a critical review of japans contributions to south koreas early Economic Development in the form of an examination of japans involvement in building the seoul subway and its involvement in helping south koreas steel industry, but the good side, i think, of south koreas efforts to harness National Spirit on this issue arises from the channeling of some of that outrage into a focused on competitiveness and innovation and drive, in some ways this could even be an opportunity for moon to effectively address south korean economic stagnation and note that the south korean government announced that it would invest 6 and a half billion dollars on r d in order to cut dependency on japanese import. But on balance i would say that these responses have been on the economic merits alone. Im skeptical that the reports in south korean media about a campaign to damage the success of the Tokyo Olympics will be successful. And i worry when i see the politicization of the relationship with japan in south korea and domestic politics. And so here is why i have to dig a little deeper and maybe go beyond my lane because we have to take into account, i actually think that president moon started on a good try with relationship with japan underscoring policy, focused on separating future from the past. And the question is how did things go wrong, and i would say that the Moon Administration putting itself in a box on policy towards japan in part because of the dismantling of the foundation which was part of the agreement and in part related to aftermath of the Supreme Courts decision abes growing distrust of moon. And so ironically moon finds himself in the same kind of box that she found herself in when she started her term putting the issue in front of Everything Else in south koreajapan relations. And so you are no