Lee Jae-myung calls for "S Korea-China-Japan, and Chinese intervention," while Takaichi rejects "S Korea-US-Japan, regional stability."

 

Lee Jae-myung calls for "S Korea-China-Japan, and Chinese intervention," while Takaichi rejects "S Korea-US-Japan, regional stability."

 

President Lee Jae-myung calls for "South Korea-China-Japan cooperation and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," while Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi emphasized "Japan-US-South Korea cooperation and North Korea denuclearization," confirming the gap. Japan rejected President Lee's call for "China intervention in the Korean Peninsula."

 

In announcing the results of the South Korea-Japan summit on the 13th, President Lee emphasized "cooperation among the three countries of South Korea, China, and Japan," while Prime Minister Takaichi expressed his opposition, stating, "Strongly promoting cooperation among Japan, the US, and South Korea in addition to Japan-South Korea cooperation."

 

President Lee previously proposed to President Xi Jinping at the South Korea-China summit on the 5th, "mediating North Korean dialogue and intervening on the Korean Peninsula," and "developing the Seoul-Pyongyang-Beijing high-speed railway and the North Korean Kalmaji tourism development."

However, these proposals were rejected, citing the need for "patience."

At the summit, Prime Minister Takaichi's "close cooperation between South Korea, the US, and Japan on the denuclearization of North Korea" was a request to the Lee Jae-myung administration to "maintain the South Korea, the US, and Japan system in negotiations with North Korea," and President Lee pressured Japan to "intervene in mediating North Korea dialogue" for "South Korea, China, and Japan cooperation on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," and Japan appears to have rejected this.

In a joint statement, President Lee said, “The two countries also exchanged opinions broadly on regional and global issues, and shared the recognition of the importance of cooperation between South Korea, Japan, and the United States for regional peace and stability amidst the rapidly changing international situation.”

He added, “I also emphasized the need for South Korea, China, and Japan in Northeast Asia to find common ground as much as possible and communicate and cooperate together.”

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in a press statement, “We reaffirmed that South Korea, Japan, and the United States must closely cooperate and respond to the complete denuclearization of North Korea.” He added, “This year, under the leadership of President Lee and me, we will significantly develop Japan-South Korea relations and strongly promote trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the United States, and Japan.”

President Lee continued, “The two countries reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of permanent peace, and agreed to continue close cooperation on North Korea policy,” revealing the gap in the results of the meeting.

Prime Minister Takaichi spoke of “North Korea’s denuclearization” at the summit, clearly stating his intention to pursue independent “North Korea-Japan diplomatic negotiations” and a summit without South Korea’s intervention.

The revelation of the Japanese abduction incident, which became the biggest obstacle to the normalization of diplomatic relations between North Korea and Japan, which was being promoted by the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party, involved the involvement of South Korea's intelligence agency, and this appears to have been a strategy by Japan to obstruct the normalization of diplomatic relations between North Korea before the US Republican Party.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 13th with the headline, “The Japanese and South Korean governments recognized the importance of ‘strategic cooperation’ such as security cooperation, including the United States,” and with the title, “Summit held in Nara City,” that “Prime Minister Takaichi acknowledged the importance of ‘strategic cooperation’ between Japan and South Korea, including security cooperation with the United States, at a joint press conference following his meeting with President Lee Jae-myung in Nara City on the afternoon of the 13th,” and that “The two leaders agreed to continue ‘shuttle diplomacy’ between the leaders of Japan and South Korea and to promote cooperation in the areas of economic security.”

On the 7th, President Lee held an unscheduled press conference with South Korean reporters in Shanghai and live-streamed it on YouTube. He said, “I asked China to play a mediating role on issues on the Korean Peninsula, including North Korea’s nuclear program.

President Xi Jinping evaluated our efforts so far and said, ‘We need to be patient.’”

He added, “Because there is hostility between the South and the North that has been building up for quite some time, it will take a lot of time and effort for dialogue to begin, and China will also try to play a certain role,” and announced that President Xi was conveying the ‘treatment of peripheral countries from the perspective of a central country’ by ‘waiting patiently’ in response to requests for mediation in conflicts between peripheral countries.

At the South Korea-China summit on the 5th, President Lee stated, "We will explore feasible alternatives for peace on the Korean Peninsula," and requested that China play an active role in inter-Korean dialogue for peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula.

However, President Xi did not use the terms "Korean Peninsula" or "North Korea" even once during the summit, limiting his remarks to "bilateral diplomacy" using the terms "regional peace" and "global development," stating, "China and South Korea bear a significant responsibility for safeguarding regional peace and promoting global development, and share a broad intersection of interests."

 

At the summit, President Xi told President Lee, "We must consider each other's core interests and major concerns and appropriately resolve differences through dialogue and consultation." This differs significantly from President Lee's remarks on a "mature development consensus."

High-ranking officials involved in the South Korea-China summit leaked to the press on the 12th, for promotional purposes, that President Lee had proposed four inter-Korean and international cooperation projects during his meeting with President Xi: the construction of the Seoul-Pyongyang-Beijing high-speed railway, the Wonsan-Kalma peace tourism project, inter-Korean healthcare cooperation, and the Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI), requesting China's cooperation and mediation.

They also revealed that President Lee also proposed the four major cooperation projects and requested cooperation and mediation during a meeting and luncheon with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the 6th, the day after the summit.

 

Without revealing the national issue, President Lee told reporters on the 7th that he had asked the President to "play a mediating role in Korean Peninsula issues."

 

The Hankyoreh reported that President Xi reportedly responded positively to President Lee's request for cooperation and mediation, calling it a "good suggestion." However, since North Korea's "two hostile states" theory, inter-Korean relations have been so bad, and China's influence and persuasive power over North Korea are limited, he reportedly advised, "Patience is needed," according to a report on the 12th.

 

When South Korea's nuclear enrichment strategy was hindered by China, National Security Advisor Wi Sung-rak gave a special interview with the Hankyoreh just before the summit.

In response to a question about China expressing concerns through state-run media about South Korea's construction of nuclear-powered submarines and its pursuit of uranium enrichment, Wi responded on December 30th of last year, "North Korea is pursuing nuclear-armed submarines and could launch them (with nuclear weapons). We must explain that we too must respond. (From our perspective), the asymmetry in nuclear and missile capabilities between South and North Korea is not just a serious problem, but a matter of life and death."

 

This statement formalizes the right to symmetrically align "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" with "denuclearization of North Korea" as a legitimate right.

In an interview with President Lee on the 12th, Japan's NHK asked, "You recently met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and China appears to be urging South Korea to align with China on the current Taiwan and historical issues. Please explain South Korea's position." President Lee responded, "I directly told President Xi that relations with Japan are as important to South Korea as China."

President Lee continued, "From the perspective of peace and stability in Northeast Asia, confrontation and conflict between China and Japan are undesirable, so I await an amicable resolution through dialogue between the two countries." This marked a preemptive declaration of his position on "restoring the South Korea-China-Japan system."

 

The Yomiuri Shimbun, under the headline “Reconsidering the Japan-Korea Relations,” reported on the 13th that “Japan had originally planned to hold a Sino-Japanese-South Korean summit this month, but when China rejected it due to objections to the Prime Minister’s response to the Diet regarding the Taiwanese state of emergency, it proposed that President Lee visit Japan alone.”

The paper continued, “For the Prime Minister, who advocates for a “free and open Indo-Pacific development,” and for President Lee, who aims to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), cooperation between South Korea and Japan is essential for regional stability. During his spring visit to the United States, the Prime Minister will appeal for unity among Japan, the United States, and South Korea to bring back President Trump, who values ​​the “Donlaw Doctrine,” which prioritizes great-power relations between the United States and China, while building a sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere. He also aims to strengthen the government’s base in the House of Representatives elections under consideration and to finalize diplomatic relations with China.”

 

At the summit, President Lee spoke of a "new imperial system," saying, "I hope that Prime Minister Takaichi and I can join hands, and that the Japanese and Korean peoples can work together toward a new future for the Republic of Korea and Japan."
In his inaugural address, President Lee declared, "The people are the masters of the nation," and his remarks at the summit violated this principle by calling for a "national mobilization system."

Shimane Prefecture, a political base for Prime Minister Takaichi, posted on its website a map of Matsushima (松島), presumed to have been created in the 17th or 18th century. The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 14th that this map was historical evidence for the Japanese name for Dokdo, "Takeshima."
Prime Minister Takaichi is attempting to hold an early House of Representatives election in February, and with growing political volatility surrounding the alliance between the Komeito Party, which broke away from its coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party in October of last year, and the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, the South Korea-Japan summit appears to be a domestic election ploy.

 

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