Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who visited Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 27, 2016, speaks while US President Barack Obama watches. On the back right is a memorial hall installed on the US battleship Arizona, which was sunk in December 1941 by a Japanese surprise attack. Honolulu/Reuters Yonhap News
‘Restoration of the Alliance’ as a key diplomatic task: Less than a month after President Joe Biden came to power, the voices in the United States calling for the restoration of Korea-Japan relations and strengthening trilateral cooperation between Korea-US-Japan are in earnest. However, it is true that this movement of the United States is being accepted by Korea as a “side to Japan” rather than “fair mediation”. Is that really so, then when did this flow begin? New Foreign Minister Eui-yong Eui-yong made the first phone call after taking office with US Secretary of State Tony Blincoln on the 12th of Lunar New Year’s Day. You can read the impatience of the Korean government to hurry up the communication between Korea and the United States. In a press release announcing the fact of the meeting, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “The Ministers and Ministers agreed to hold high-level consultations to discuss current issues between the two countries as soon as possible.” Revealed. However, the nuances of the data released by the US State Department were subtly different. This is because, using the expression that Minister Blincoln “emphasized the importance of continuing US-Korea-Japan cooperation”, the US took the appearance of persuading Korea to’hurry to restore relations with Japan’. If you look at the data on the 10th phone call between Minister Blincoln and Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu, you can feel this atmosphere more. The US State Department said that the two ministers “welcome the trilateral cooperation between the US-Japan-Korea and regional cooperation, including the Quad,” but Japan said, “For the realization of a free and open India-Pacific, We emphasized that we were consistent in strengthening solidarity between Australia) and India (India), but did not mention anything about the trilateral cooperation between Korea-US-Japan. The U.S. is demanding the restoration of relations from South Korea, which has committed something’diplomatic fault’, and Japan has created an atmosphere that does not hide its uncomfortable signs as if their anger was justified.
material photo” alt=”In July 2012, the 5th anniversary of the resolution of the comfort women in the US House of Representatives was held. In July 2012, the 5th anniversary of the resolution of the comfort women in the US House of Representatives was held. <한겨레> Material photo
For a while, the United States has been engaging in meaningful interventions that Korea can favorably accept based on the “human rights perspective” that they value whenever a conflict in the history of Korea-Japan erupts, such as the “comfort women” issue of the Japanese military. On July 30, 2007, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution for comfort women despite persistent Japanese opposition, and on December 26, 2013, when former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni Shrine, it responded that he was “disappointed”. However, this position of the United States will change dramatically as the US-Japan alliance strengthened in response to the’rise of China’ in 2014-2016. At this time, Former Prime Minister Abe announced in March 2014 that he would “success” the 1993 Kono discourse, which acknowledged the coercion of the mobilization of comfort women and the intervention of the military. The US-Japan Security Cooperation Guidelines (guidelines) have been revised to expand the scope and status of activities from’Global Alliance’. Former Prime Minister Abe and former U.S. President Barack Obama cross-visited “Hiroshima” and “Pearl Bay” in 2016 and succeeded in wiping out much of the historical sediment that remained until the end. The US-Japan alliance has been reborn into a special alliance unlike before.
material photo” alt=”Foreign Minister Yoon Byung-se and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida hold a joint press conference after meeting on the comfort women issue at the Seoul Ministry of Foreign Affairs office on December 28, 2015. Foreign Minister Yoon Byung-se and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida hold a joint press conference after meeting on the comfort women issue at the Seoul Ministry of Foreign Affairs office on December 28, 2015. <한겨레> Material photo
Accordingly, the way the United States intervenes in the conflict between Korea and Japan will change. The U.S. started outright pressure on reconciliation between Korea and Japan in early 2015, and issued a statement saying, “Welcome” after the “comfort women agreement” was reached on December 28, 2015. In a phone call with former Prime Minister Abe on January 6, 2017, when President Biden was also vice president, he said, “The United States supports the comfort women agreement and strongly expects both sides to steadily implement it.” The U.S.-Japan, seeing that the Korea-Japan conflict was sealed through the ’12-28 Agreement’, signed the Korea-U.S. Military Information Protection Agreement (Gisomia) in November 2016, and completed the deployment of THAAD at the US base in Korea in early 2017. Korea-US-Japan trilateral cooperation has been taken to the next level. The U.S. position has changed somewhat after the Donald Trump administration, which neglected the alliance by advocating U.S. priority, in January 2017. President Trump also showed off his surprise at three summit meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June 2018, February and June 2019. Meanwhile, the Moon Jae-in administration neutralized the agreement on the comfort women in January 2018, and in the fall of 2019, after a decision to end Jisomia in the context of conflict with Japan, there was a commotion to overturn it. The U.S.-Japan embodied the’Indo-Pacific Strategy’ (referred to as the Initiative in Japan), a joint initiative for the siege of China in 2018-2019, and then strengthened the’Quad’, a security consultative body in which the United States, Japan, Australia and India participate. In progress.
Defense Minister Chung Gyeong-du (left), US Defense Minister Mark Esper (center), and Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono during a photo shoot of a reporter during the Korea-US-Japan defense ministers’ meeting held at the Avani Riverside Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand on November 17, 2019. After responding, they are giving each other to go to the meeting place first. On the 21st, five days after this meeting, Korea overturned the decision to end the Korea-Japan Military Information Protection Agreement (Gisomia). Bangkok/Yonhap News
The new Biden administration desperately wants a flexible and tightly functioning trilateral cooperation between the United States and Korea in order to check China. As it reveals, the US State Department spokesman’s office on the 11th (VOA) stressed that “the tension that exists between Japan and South Korea is regrettable” and that “there is nothing more important than the relationship between Japan and South Korea”. Also, in the report on Korea-Japan relations and US-Japan relations, the biden administration’s biggest diplomatic task was the recovery of Korea-Japan relations. The US intervention is expected to begin with Secretary of State Blincoln’s visit to Asia, which is expected in March. The US (CNN) quoted multiple State Department officials on the 11th and said that Minister Blincoln will “visit NATO (NATO) and Asian allies in mid-late March.” The Korean government attempted to restore relations by conveying the idea of the “Tokyo Peace Olympics” to Japan on the occasion of the inauguration of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in September last year. However, due to Japan’s strong stance that’Korea should provide both security’, it has not achieved much success. If the current situation continues, such as in December 2015 (Agreement on December 28) or November 2019 (Reversal of decision to end Jisomia), it may be driven into a situation where it is necessary to make a “definitive concession” in relations with Japan once again. By Gil Yoon-hyung, staff reporter [email protected]