Lee eyes pragmatic diplomacy with Japan amid historical tensions

Asahi Shimbun

a day ago

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a ceremony to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, in Seoul on Aug. 15. (Pool via REUTERS)
SEOUL--In a speech to mark the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, President Lee Jae Myung said on Friday that the relationship with Japan should be "forward-looking," based on pragmatic diplomacy focusing on Seoul's national interest.
Ties between the U.S. allies have often been strained, rooted in historical disputes stemming from Japan's colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945.
The South Korean president will visit Japan on Aug. 23 for a summit with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, as both countries grapple with the implications of U.S. tariffs imposed by the administration of President Donald Trump.
Lee has in the past been critical of efforts by administrations in Seoul to improve ties with Tokyo, though he pledged to deepen the relationship with Japan at a meeting with Ishiba on the sidelines of a Group of Seven meeting in Canada in June.
Turning to Seoul's ties with Pyongyang, Lee said South Korea will end some military activities along its border with North Korea in his government's latest effort to improve ties between the neighbors still technically at war.
Lee said he would restore the so-called September 19 Comprehensive Military Agreement, a de-escalation measure that halted some military activities at the border between North Korea and South Korea.
The pact was signed at an inter-Korean summit in 2018, but broke down as cross-border tensions spiked. How Pyongyang will respond to Seoul's latest overture remains unclear. Top North Korean officials in recent weeks have dismissed other moves taken by Lee, a liberal who won a snap election in June, to ease tension between the two countries.
The Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice rather than a formal peace treaty and entrenched the peninsula's division.
"Everyone knows that the long drawn-out hostility benefits people in neither of the two Koreas," Lee said during his speech in Seoul.
Lee cited his government's efforts to lower tensions, including halting the launch of balloons floated by activists with anti-North Korea leaflets and dismantling loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the heavily militarised border.
"In particular, to prevent accidental clashes between South and North Korea and to build military trust, we will take proactive, gradual steps to restore the September 19 Military Agreement," Lee said, without giving a timeframe.
In June 2024, former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a complete suspension of the military pact, which Pyongyang had abandoned in November 2023, after North Korea sent hundreds of rubbish-stuffed balloons across the border.
The pact included measures such as both sides ending military drills near the border, banning live-fire exercises in certain areas, the imposition of no-fly zones, the removal of some guard posts along the Demilitarized Zone, and maintaining hotlines.
"I hope that North Korea will reciprocate our efforts to restore trust and revive dialogue," Lee said. Earlier this month, South Korea and the U.S. delayed parts of their annual joint military exercises that have been a source of tension with North Korea.
Cheong Seong-chang, an expert on North Korea at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, said he expected Pyongyang "to ignore or denounce" Lee's latest moves, noting how it had seen how Seoul had previously broken the military pact.
To get North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to enter dialogue, Lee needed a bolder offer such as persuading U.S. President Donald Trump to ease sanctions, said Yeom Don-jay, a former official at South Korea's National Intelligence Service.
Yeom said the North would be monitoring an upcoming summit between Lee and Trump this month.