THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Festering resentment over war-related and other issues has
left Japan as the odd man out as China and South Korea cozy up politically to
counter the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs.
On April 24, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se
went to Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
The two agreed to establish a hotline to discuss pressing
issues concerning an increasingly bellicose North Korea.
The two countries have also separately criticized Japan,
most recently for visits to Yasukuni Shrine by ministers of the Abe Cabinet,
making it more difficult for Japan to be included in multilateral discussions
on North Korea.
Yun told reporters that during his three-hour discussion
with Wang, agreement was also reached on strengthening "strategic
communications" between their two nations through various channels,
including top leaders, Cabinet ministers and high-ranking government officials.
Although China had until now focused on economic ties with
South Korea out of consideration for its long-time ally North Korea, Beijing
and Seoul agreed to strengthen their political ties as well.
Regarding heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula due
to threats by Pyongyang to launch a long-range ballistic missile and conduct a
fourth nuclear test, Yun pointed out that strategic dialogue was being held
through a number of bilateral relationships, such as those between the United
States and South Korea, the United States and China, as well as China and South
Korea.
Yun expressed confidence that further cooperation between
the United States, China and South Korea will be achieved with the move toward
strategic communications at a high level.
Yun made almost no specific mention of Japan in his
comments. He was asked if South Korea would work together with China in
responding to recent comments about history issues by Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe.
Yun only said, "It is not an issue of joint response."
There were other signs that Japan was being ignored even as
China and South Korea nudged closer to each other.
Wang called Yun three days after he was picked to be
China's foreign minister. Although Wang is known as a Japan expert, he has yet
to talk with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
China is also moving toward developing closer ties with the
United States.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met recently with visiting
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Xi said
the two nations should "continuously improve the contents of their
cooperative partnership."
Amid such developments, the gap created by the history
issues between Japan and China and South Korea continues to cast a long shadow.
On April 24, Ambassador Masato Kitera held a reception in
Beijing to mark his arrival there in late December.
"While the Japan-China relationship continues to face
a difficult situation, we will maintain and strengthen various levels of
communications," Kitera said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry was represented by Xiong Bo, a
deputy director-general of the Asian Affairs Department. He told reporters,
"In order to improve the relationship, the two sides must squarely look at
the issue that serves as the largest barrier."
In a meeting with executives of South Korean media
organizations on April 24, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said, "It
would not be good for Japan to move in a direction that tilts toward the right
because it would make its relationships with Asian nations more difficult."
On the same day, a meeting was held in Seoul of business
executives from Japan and South Korea. In a keynote address, Yasuo Fukuda, a
former prime minister, said, "I hope that a meeting can be held between
the leaders of the two nations as soon as possible."
At the same time, South Korea did not appear to be cutting
off all ties with Japan.
Seoul is prepared to send its environment minister to a
meeting scheduled for early May in Japan that is also being attended by a
Chinese minister with the same portfolio.
A South Korean government source said, "Multilateral
meetings are different from the bilateral relationship between Japan and South
Korea."
The United States has informally asked the Abe
administration to deal cautiously with history issues because it did not want
them to jeopardize Japan's ties with China and South Korea.
Reiterating that stance at an April 23 news conference,
Patrick Ventrell, the acting deputy spokesperson for the U.S. State Department,
said, "We encourage (Japan and South Korea) to work through their issues
and have a good dialogue and a good relationship."
(This article was written by Nozomu Hayashi in Beijing,
Akihiko Kaise and Akira Nakano in Seoul and Takashi Oshima in Washington.)
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