While President Yoon Seok-yeol applied it to domestic enemies as a “removal of stumbling blocks,” Japanese Prime Minister Kishida seems to have used the Korea-Japan summit to respond to China.
In a public address through a live broadcast of the State Council meeting on the 22nd, President Yoon said, “I will preemptively instruct the Minister of Industry today to initiate the necessary legal procedures to restore our side’s white list to Japan.” If we remove it, Japan will surely respond,” he said.
President Yoon's conversion of the Korea-Japan summit into a domestic 'removal of obstacles' strategy is similar to the strategy of the US Reaganomics, which built a cold-hearted system in the 1980s, to avoid domestic laws and parliamentary approval with international agreements in order to neutralize the Congress with the minority of the Republican Party. do.
In an address to the public, President Yoon said, “The previous administration left Korea-Japan relations in a quagmire as they were. In the aftermath, the people of both countries and Koreans in Japan suffered damage, and the economy and security of both countries fell into deep enmity.” It could have been,” he said.
President Yoon continued, “However, I thought that if I tried to stimulate hostile nationalism and anti-Japanese sentiment and use it for domestic politics, leaving the current severe international situation behind, I would be abandoning my duties as president.” There are definitely forces that seek political gain while shouting anti-Japanese.”
Regarding the Korea-Japan summit, the New York Times said, "The two leaders promised to work together to discuss close cooperation on economic security." It was reported on the 23rd that it suggested that we would try to resume a three-way dialogue with the Yoshike Mine, a former diplomat at the Institute of Peace and Diplomacy in Japan, said, “Some companies are hesitant to make voluntary contributions to the Forced Labor Fund if it is seen as ‘compensation’ for wrongdoings that Japan has already said were settled in a much earlier agreement between the two countries in 1965. I can do it,” he told the NYT, and he saw that it would be difficult for President Yoon's Korean foundation to make a 'voluntary donation from Japanese companies'.
In response to the House of Councilors on the 23rd, Prime Minister Kishida said, "At the summit meeting with President Yoon, I stated the purpose of properly managing various pending issues and solving them sequentially, and we agreed on this." There is no removal of domestic opposition.
The NYT Tokyo bureau chief, "Japan and South Korea are great, but can they last?" said, "Both sides face potential political setbacks and delicate balancing measures in a region where the US and China are competing for influence." It was predicted that Japan would approach China by using the anti-China sentiment that reached 10%, and South Korea would mitigate the backlash against the Korea-Japan negotiations with strong domestic anti-China sentiment.
In his address to the public, President Yoon said, “The governments of both Korea and Japan must look back on themselves and make efforts to remove obstacles on their own that hinder the normalization and development of Korea-Japan relations.” We will proceed with a sense of speed,” he said.
The NYT quoted the “Sinophone Borderlands project, which found that 81% of South Korean respondents in a recent survey expressed negative or very negative feelings toward China,” and a project official said, “Perhaps anti-China sentiment is attributable to the negotiations between Korea and Japan. "I think it can mitigate potential backlash," he said, explaining the relationship between Japan and South Korea in China's response.
The Sinophone Borderlands project of ‘Global Attitudes toward China Study’ conducted by the Center for Central European and Asian Studies (CEIAS) is an online opinion poll report from 2020 to 2022 that states, “Koreans have the most negative view of China in the world. why?" Headline “When asked about their general views on China, 81% of South Korean respondents expressed negative or very negative feelings. This is more than the 56 countries that participated in the Sinofon Borderlands Project's global survey,” said Pew Research. tracked down
Regarding Koreans, the Sinofon report said, “It is considered to point to very negative perceptions with little or no distinction between people and countries on everything related to China.” There is a more positive trend, which can be interpreted as meaning that people with a lower socioeconomic status feel more threatened by China, which means that people with a higher status (Koreans) can see China as an opportunity (economic aspect).” .
Regarding South Korean foreign policy, the report said, “The uniquely negative perception of China is a relatively new phenomenon, but it is already deeply rooted in Korean society.” Despite polarized views on the issue, both sides will have to consider the widespread negative attitudes of the public toward China over the next few years.”
<Seok-Yeol Yoon’s ‘preemptive elimination of speed and freedom’ vs. Kishida’s ‘Sequential Resolution of Current Issues Management’, see March 23, 2023>