Japan PM to meet Bessent on Friday, Yomiuri says
A separate Yomiuri report said European Union leaders will visit Ishiba later this month to sign an "alliance" advocating global free trade, seeking multilateral ties as US tariffs add to trade risks.
Bessent is set to travel to Japan to attend the US national day at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, scheduled for July 19, skipping a concurrent Group of 20 finance officials meeting in South Africa, US Treasury said last week.
Bessent would lead the US delegation, which will also include Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, according to the White House.
Japan's top tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa is also expected to meet with Bessent, Yomiuri added, citing an unnamed government source. Despite seven US visits since April, Akazawa has yet to secure a trade agreement with Washington.
Reuters has not independently confirmed these planned meetings during Bessent's Japan trip.
This would mark the first high-level meeting between Tokyo and Washington after US President Donald Trump last week sent a letter to Japan raising tariffs on Japanese imports to 25 percent from Aug. 1.
Separately, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa will meet Ishiba in Tokyo around July 23 and launch a "competitiveness alliance" scheme, Yomiuri reported.
The EU, facing 30 percent tariffs, has accused the US of resisting efforts to strike a trade deal and warned of countermeasures.
The new EU-Japan framework will note their commitment to "a stable, predictable, rules-based, free and fair economic order" to counter Trump's tariffs and China's rare earth export restrictions, Yomiuri said, citing draft statements.
The statement could also mention EU-Japan tie-ups in areas such as rare earth and battery supply chains, natural gas investments, defense industry dialogues and satellites, the newspaper added.
The US and EU officials' Japan visits come at a sensitive time for Ishiba with his ruling coalition seen losing its majority in Sunday's upper house election, according to recent polls.
Having already lost the lower house majority in October, a second electoral defeat could significantly undermine Ishiba's political standing while potentially strengthening opposition parties that advocate for tax cuts and looser monetary policy. (Reuters)
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[Lee Kyong-hee] Fake news, false reports, conspiracy theories
Within hours after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Dec. 3, a rabid right-wing YouTuber contended that 99 Chinese spies were apprehended at an election management facility and transported to a US military base in Okinawa, Japan. Thereafter, social networks were rife with rumors that the Chinese accounted for 30 percent of anti-Yoon protesters demanding his impeachment. Nonsensical online demagoguery? Of course. But to many supporters of the disgraced YouTube-addicted former president, it rang true. After all, during his turbulent presidency, Yoon often blamed Chinese influence on domestic politics and elections without providing evidence. The Yoon supporters eventually descended on an enclave of lamb skewer restaurants mostly run by ethnic Koreans who left China for their ancestral homeland in search of better opportunities. Screams of 'Go back to China!' and 'Commies, disappear quickly from the Republic of Korea!' filled the air near Konkuk University, eastern Seoul. The pathetic scene of violence evoked a sense of deja vu. Rewind to July 1931, when Japan hyped a minor dispute between local Chinese farmers and Korean settlers in Manchuria to justify its aggression. The dispute began when a group of Koreans subleased land outside of Wanpaoshan village, north of Changchun, Jilin province, and began digging an irrigation ditch in an area not included in the sublease. Some 400 Chinese farmers, armed with farming tools, confronted the Koreans, and the Japanese consulate in Changchun dispatched police under the pretext of protecting subjects of their empire. The Chinese security authorities also sent police. The clash ended with several Chinese wounded, but Japanese police officers and Korean farmers unharmed. To ignite anti-Chinese sentiment, the Japanese colonial authorities had Korean newspapers publish fabricated reports claiming that hundreds of Koreans were killed during the so-called 'Wanpaoshan Incident.' Anti-Chinese riots erupted across Korea, causing hundreds of Chinese casualties and major property damage. Meanwhile, anti-Korean riots in China continued under Japan's wartime propaganda. Months later, a New York Times dispatch from Changchun dated Nov. 4 said: 'Fully 10,000 Korean farmers have been massacred by Chinese or slain while defending their homesteads during the last six weeks in Jilin Province alone, according to an estimate given out here today by a Japanese General commanding a division of 5,500 troops.' The media manipulation thus turned a minor skirmish between farming groups into a major conflict, devastating an ethnic community and eventually dealing a fatal blow to Korean independence movements in the broader Manchurian region. Fast forward to chaotic post-liberation Korea in 1945. Freed at last from four decades of harsh foreign rule, Koreans failed to achieve national unity and fell victim to great power politics. Again, newspapers played a role -- significant, if not decisive -- in the partition of the peninsula under two contesting regimes. In the summer of 1945, Koreans expected their country would quickly become free and independent again. They were not aware that the big powers, under US initiative, were considering a four-power trusteeship that might last as long as 40 to 50 years. The trusteeship issue was resolved by the foreign ministers of the US, the UK and the Soviet Union, who convened in Moscow in December 1945. Their communique, adopting the Soviet draft concerning the Korean question, stipulated a four-power trusteeship for up to five years to supervise a unified provisional Korean government, which would be established by a US-Soviet joint commission. On Christmas Day, before the announcement of the final decision, the United Press reported from Washington that 'Secretary of State Byrns went to Russia reportedly with instructions to urge immediate independence as opposed to the Russian thesis of trusteeship.' Korean media carried the story on Dec. 27, each editing and compiling it as they saw fit. The news bombarded the already polarized political scene. The idea of 'trusteeship' itself was unacceptable; anti-trusteeship became a strong rallying point for the right. The rightist Dong-A Ilbo had an inflammatory headline: 'Soviet Union Asserts Trusteeship; United States Asserts Immediate Independence.' The rightists seized upon the opportunity to denounce communists as 'country-selling Soviet stooges.' The US Military Government in Korea added to the confusion by deliberately implying that trusteeship was solely a Soviet policy. Amid extreme confrontation between the right and the left, leading politicians from both camps were assassinated. The turmoil ever deepened. The North-South division perpetuated. Much about the controversial newspaper reports on the Moscow conference, regarded as among the worst Korean press performances to date, remains a mystery. None of the newspapers offered an apology for false reporting, disregarding the basic principles of fact-checking and verification, nor did they elucidate the background of their reporting. Most recently, the press coverage of the visit by Morse Tan, a Korean American law professor and former US ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, raises questions about his identity as well as evidence of his claims about election fraud in South Korea and President Lee Jae-myung's childhood. The press should focus more on fact-finding to enhance accountability and win back the public's trust, which has been lost to social media. Today's information disorder and consequent conundrum, complicated by the proliferation of new media and the ever-present foreign interference, requires unwavering journalistic integrity and professionalism. News consumers also need to improve their information literacy. Ultimately, they get the media they deserve.
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Final week of US-Korea trade talks sees shipbuilding as key
Seoul is racing to finalize a tariff deal with Washington before the Aug. 1 deadline, as Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol prepares to meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday in a bid to avert a 25 percent tariff on Korean exports, including autos. According to the industry and government sources on Sunday, the meeting between Koo and Bessent has been rescheduled for Thursday, likely at the US Treasury Department. Their meeting was initially planned for Friday with Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, but was postponed by the US side. Korea's industry and trade chiefs, who are currently visiting the US, will remain there to continue last-minute high-level negotiations. To their US counterparts, they have outlined plans for cooperation in key strategic manufacturing sectors such as semiconductors, shipbuilding and batteries, while strongly urging tariff reductions on items such as automobiles. The Korean government has presented a revised proposal that includes sensitive agricultural and livestock products, going further than its initial offer to address US concerns. Washington, however, is reportedly pressuring Seoul for greater concessions. The tight schedule remains a major hurdle. The US is to hold trade talks with the European Union on Sunday, and is set to conduct high-level trade meetings with China on Monday and Tuesday, leaving only Wednesday and Thursday available for negotiations with Korea. Last week, Japan secured a reduction in tariffs on its auto exports to the US, with rates falling from 27.5 percent to 15 percent, after offering a $550 billion investment package. The deal has increased pressure on Korea, whose auto industry still faces the full 25 percent tariff. As Japan, Korea's key rival in the sector, gains an upper hand, Seoul is reportedly preparing a $100 billion package, along with additional commitments, to remain competitive Given that the US' ultimate goal is to revive its manufacturing sector, Seoul is focusing on leveraging industrial cooperation, particularly in the shipbuilding sector, where Korea holds a competitive edge. 'We confirmed the US has a strong interest in shipbuilding and agreed to work on mutually acceptable solutions, including bilateral cooperation in the sector," Korea's presidential office said Saturday. Trump has repeatedly stressed the importance of strengthening the US' shipbuilding industry and issued an executive order in April aimed at revitalizing the sector and curbing China's maritime dominance. Experts warn that the US tariffs, if maintained at the threatening 25 percent level, are expected to hit Korea's manufacturing sector the hardest. It accounts for 27.6 percent of Korea's economy — well above the OECD average — and exports make up 44 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. The US auto tariffs have already impacted Korea's leading automakers. Hyundai Motor and Kia both reported weaker earnings in the April-June period: Kia's operating profit plunged 24.1 percent, while Hyundai's figure dropped 15.8 percent. The Korea Institute for International Economic Policy has warned that Korea's real GDP could shrink by up to 0.4 percent if the US tariffs are implemented as initially planned. 'If the US' 'reciprocal' tariffs of 25 percent take place, Korea's real GDP can decrease by 0.3-0.4 percent even after the economy stabilizes," the institute said in a public hearing in June. With Japan recently securing a tariff reduction to 15 percent, Korea's growth prospects are expected to worsen under a higher rate, given that the two countries have similar export portfolios to the US. Korea's already stagnant growth outlook — currently projected at below 1 percent — would also likely face a further downgrade if the 25 percent reciprocal tariff is imposed. According to the Bank of Korea on July 24, the country's growth rate is likely to remain around the May forecast of 0.8 percent, in the case that the tariff rate is lowered to 15 percent, similar to Japan's. The rate could fall to zero if the tariff is set at 25 percent. US President Donald Trump said that his administration will have most of its trade deals with countries finished by Aug. 1. The president also said his administration might send letters to close to 200 countries informing them of their tariff rate, which he said means, "They have a deal. It's done."
