Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi visited South Korea on May 19-20 and met with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Lee’s hometown of Andong. It is the first reciprocal summit visit since the two met in January in Takaichi’s hometown of Nara, reinforcing the sense that shuttle diplomacy between the two countries is taking root.
Japan and South Korea are neighbors and allies of the United States, and in a Northeast Asia plagued by threats from China, Russia and North Korea, communication between them about their shared values – democracy, the market economy, the rule of law – is important. The two countries must also coordinate their response to US President Donald Trump’s demands for higher tariffs and increased defense spending. This latest meeting advanced their cooperation on energy security.
Takaichi is one of the LDP’s leading hawks and has vowed to carry on the legacy of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Lee, by contrast, is a progressive in the Democratic Party of Korea, a background often associated in Japan with conciliation toward North Korea and a frosty attitude toward Tokyo. Some feared that relations would deteriorate as a result, but Lee showed pragmatism and moved closer to Japan, and Takaichi responded in kind. The many thorny disputes – historical and territorial – between the two countries have been effectively put aside in favor of an urgent agenda.
Underlying all of this is a change in public attitude. Young people on both sides now have an overall positive image of each other, driven in large part by the soft power of anime and K-pop. Both leaders are moving quickly to capitalize on this goodwill. Lee received Takaichi with state guest-level treatment, exactly as he did for former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba last September. Whoever the prime minister is, South Korea makes Japan a priority.
The warm atmosphere should not, however, mask a real gap between the positions of the two leaders. While Japan focuses on bilateral relations and the trilateral framework between the United States, Japan and South Korea, Seoul has also encouraged cooperation between Japan, China and South Korea, an emphasis that, given South Korea’s geography, is difficult to avoid.
The gap is most apparent in North Korea. Takaichi stressed “complete denuclearization” and “immediate resolution of the kidnapping problem,” while Lee spoke of a “peaceful Korean Peninsula where there is no need to fight” and “building permanent peace” through dialogue.
This divergence is not new and reflects a structural reality. For South Korea, the issue of the Korean Peninsula is existential. For Japan, North Korea poses an overseas threat: serious, but in a different way.
The trade figures clearly show this. Since 2010, Japan has maintained zero trade with North Korea, driven by public anger over the issue of kidnapping, a state-sponsored crime. Tokyo has repeatedly requested cooperation from Seoul and successive South Korean administrations have expressed understanding, but none have made serious efforts to align their policies.
This isn’t limited to progressive administrations, either. When Japan imposed its trade ban, South Korea was led by conservative President Lee Myung-bak. Yet under his leadership, significant foreign currency continued to flow into North Korea, primarily through the Kaesong industrial complex. In March 2010, the sinking of the Cheonana South Korean naval patrol boat, killed 46 sailors, and even after four more people died during North Korea’s bombing of Yeonpyeong Island in November of that year, the flow of foreign currency into Pyongyang continued. The same approach was maintained under the conservative administration of Park Geun-hye; Kaesong was not suspended until February 2016.
From a strategic perspective, closer cooperation between Japan and South Korea is evident. When it comes to North Korea, however, alignment is more difficult to achieve: Seoul’s direct participation in the peninsula means that its calculus will always be different from Tokyo’s. Japan must pursue its own diplomacy with Pyongyang, while working with Seoul, and find a way out of the long-standing impasse. And when it comes to the issue of kidnappings – which concerns the lives of Japanese citizens – no amount of American or South Korean support changes the fact that the responsibility ultimately lies with Tokyo.