Included in the commemorative remarks of verse 3.1

The commemorative message presented by the President during the March 1st, when the domestic anti-Japanese sentiment increases every year, has great diplomatic implications in Korea-Japan relations. President Moon Jae-in’s fourth March 1 commemoration to be announced while the government is actively improving relations between Korea and Japan is even more so. President Moon’s message to Japan, which appeared at major occasions such as the March 1st and Liberation Day, was analyzed as a’winning match’. This is to gauge the degree of change in the Moon Jae-in administration’s stance toward Japan.

The recognition of President Moon, who insisted on invalidating the Korea-Japan comfort women agreement from his days as a candidate, continued in his congratulatory remarks on Liberation Day in 2017. President Moon said, “Just because we value the future of Korea-Japan relations, we cannot get over the historical issue.” The government had already launched the comfort women agreement review TF on July 31, just before. And on December 27th, the TF announced that “consensus is contrary to victim-centeredness.” The next day, President Moon declared, “there are significant defects in both the content and procedure,” and that “the consensus cannot solve the comfort women problem.”

The following year, in the March 1st commemoration address of 2018, President Moon’s level of criticism against Japan increased. He defined the comfort women issue as a’anti-human human rights crime’ and said, “The Japanese government, the perpetrator, should not say that it is’over”. Despite the results of the TF, the government decided not to destroy or renegotiate renegotiations, and then directly denied the’final solution’, a key element of the agreement.

Japan immediately rebelled. At the time, Suga Yoshihide said, “President Moon’s remarks are extremely regrettable that it is contrary to the 2015 Korea-Japan comfort women agreement.” But the hard drive continued. President Moon said in the message on the Day of Comfort Women, “(The damage to the comfort women) is not a problem that will be solved by diplomatic solutions between the two countries. The problem will be solved only when Japan reflects deeply,” he affirmed.
The end of 2018 was the Supreme Court’s decision on forced conscription on October 30. Japan strongly opposed the ruling that Japanese war criminals should compensate victims of conscription as a denial of the Korea-Japan agreement, and the Korea-Japan conflict entered a phase of structural fixation.

Japan retaliated with export control measures. In July 2019, exports of semiconductor parts and materials were banned, and Korea was excluded from the “white list,” which is the preferred target for export management in August. In response, President Moon convened an emergency State Council meeting (August 2) and said, “We will never lose to Japan again.” “The Japanese government is also entirely responsible for what will happen in the future,” he said.

However, in the celebration of Liberation Day immediately after, President Moon showed a rather moderate position, saying, “Reflecting the past is not going to stick to the past, but to overcome the past and go to the future.” A week before the decision to end the Korea-Japan Military Information Protection Agreement (GSOMIA/Gisomia) (August 22), the message was managed in anticipation of a change in Japanese attitudes. However, Japan was cold, and the government declared the end of Jisomia. A key member of the Blue House said, “Japan was unresponsive to the President’s Liberation Day celebration. “I dropped the last drop in a full glass.”

When the conflict over the past became a security issue, the United States urgently began arbitration. On November 22, with only six hours left for the termination of Jisomia to take effect, South Korea postponed the decision to terminate, and Japan agreed to hold an export management policy dialogue so as to’contribute to the pending issue’. In December, at the Korea-Japan Summit held in Chengdu, China on the occasion of the Korea-Japan-China summit, the two sides decided to resolve the problem through dialogue.

However, since it is also a temporary suture, there has been no reversal of the situation even in 2020. President Moon reaffirmed that victim-centredism is the most important principle, saying, “The government will find a solution until the grandmothers say it’s okay,” in a message on the Day of Comfort Women. At the Liberation Day celebration, he said, “The Supreme Court ruling (related to conscription) has the highest legal authority and enforcement power in the territory of the Republic of Korea. Although it was said that “the door is open for consultation with Japan,” the emphasis on the “executive power” of the Supreme Court ruling was sufficient for Japan to accept it, meaning that it is possible to even convert domestic assets of Japanese companies.

It was from the end of last year that the government’s air currents were changed. In November, National Intelligence Service Chief Park Jiwon and Kim Jin-pyo, chairman of the Korean-Japanese Congressional Federation, visited Japan and delivered a message that they would meet and cooperate with Prime Minister Suga every three days. It was an appeasing move that reflected President Moon’s intention to use the Tokyo Olympics as an opportunity to advance the North Korean issue.

However, on January 8 this year, the Seoul Central District Court ruled that the Japanese government reimburse victims of comfort women, and relations between the two countries faced a tumult again. In a situation where the ruling is likely to act as bad news, President Moon delivered a lot of appreciation messages to Japan at a New Year’s press conference on January 18th. He said it was “confused” to the judgment, and said, “I admit that it was an official agreement of the government” to the comfort women agreement that has always pointed out defects in content and procedures. In addition, he said, “Cash currency is not desirable and it is more important to find a diplomatic solution between the two countries.”

The key is what kind of message President Moon will deliver in this March 1st commemoration address. Professor Park Cheol-hee of Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies analyzed that “The Moon Jae-in administration’s position on the comfort women issue, especially the comfort women agreement, was in fact close to self-denial, crossing between destruction and respect. “Improving relations with Japan is, after all, a matter of attitude, and the sincere message that the Korean government wants to restore relations between Korea and Japan must be accurately delivered,” he said.

In fact, in a speech at a high-level session of the UN Human Rights Council on the 23rd (local time), the second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choi Jong-moon urged the recurrence of “the tragedy of the comfort women should be treated as a universal human rights issue.” “We have confirmed that we will refrain from criticizing this issue.” A diplomatic source said, “We can of course say that it is a universal human rights issue, but even after President Moon acknowledges it as an official agreement, it comes out that Korea cannot be trusted as the Korean government makes this speech.”

In this regard, Yang Ki-ho, professor of Japanese Studies at Sungkonghoe University, diagnosed, “The Korean government has three pre-owned high schools that must restore Japan’s trust while adhering to the principle of respecting the judgment of the judiciary and consenting to the victims.” “In a state of broken trust with Japan, rather than the attitude of starting with the discussion between the two countries, it is necessary to first deduce its own solution through domestic discussions, and show a responsible attitude of suggesting it to Japan in order to begin the dialogue. I said.

Reporters Yoo Ji-hye and Jin-woo Jung [email protected]