A Glimmer Of Hope For Japan-Korea Ties?

 

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye during the APEC summit in Bali, Indonesia, on Oct. 7. (Photo Credit: AJW – Asahi)

This has been an extra chilly year for Japan-Korea ties, as evidenced by the frosty brushoff  South Korean President Park Geun-hye gave Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this fall at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders summit in Indonesia. Seoul and Tokyo continue to square off over interpretations of history and theirlong standing territorial dispute on Dokdo/Takeshima. Unfortunately, this rift has widened over the past year as Park has put her back up and accused Abe's government of "tilting towards the right". Abe for his part has also contributed to the lack of trust through a number of controversial statements on Japan's approach to history and reconciliation from World War II.

While the prospect of a rapproachement on history appears simple, the ambiguity of such conditions from Korea has frustrated successive Japanese administrations that point to their repeated apologies and acts of repentance, such as the Kono and Murayama statements. Further widening the gap between the two has been the recent embrace between China and South Korea, countries which have traditionally had more strained ties due to differing policies on their malcontent neigbour North Korea.

But this week's news on the Chinese annoucment of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) has the potential to change this dynamic. Beijing's new zone – which has already been violated by the overflight of US B-52 bombers this week – overlaps a large swath of airspace of both countries - Japan and Korea. The latter is significant because the ADIZ covers over the Economic Exclusive Zone containing the submerged rock Ieodo, which both Seoul and Beijing  dispute sovereignty on. For more on the fallout from this dispute and the China-ROK rift, stay tuned for my latest column at the Diplomat. 

The bungled ADIZ move coupled with the restarted trilateral FTA talks between China, Japan and South Korea are all positive stories for the bilateral relationship between Tokyo and Seoul (which have otherwise been hard to come by this year).