Summit ignores public demands, avoids real issues, observers sayThe Republic of Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol faced heavy criticism domestically after he was accused of holding a controversial summit without substance and coming away "empty-handed "from his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.In a meeting on Monday, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party said Yoon, who spoke with Kishida in Seoul the previous day, ignored the public's demands to look after national interests. The ROK was the only side that "filled the empty glass" of diplomacy through concessions, Lee was quoted as saying by public broadcaster KBS.Kishida's visit to Seoul was intended to restore the so-called shuttle diplomacy as he made the first official bilateral visit by a Japanese leader to the ROK in over a decade. His two-day visit came after Yoon's March trip to Tokyo.The Democratic Party, the main opposition party, issued a statement saying that "humiliating diplomacy" has become the foundation of the Yoon administration's dialogue with Japan as Kishida did not make an apology for or even acknowledge the ROK forced labor issue during Japan's colonial rule, only mentioning that his "heart aches".Commenting on Kishida's vague statement, Nam Ki-jeong, a professor at the Institute for Japanese Studies at Seoul National University, said it was just a repetition of Tokyo's previous stance. "It's a statement that avoids the essence of the matter," Nam told the local newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun on Sunday.Regarding the deal by Yoon and Kishida that allows ROK experts to visit Fukushima later this month to inspect the planned release of nuclear radioactive water from the Fukushima power plant, the DP said it is intolerable if the Yoon government agreed with the plan just by sending a group of experts there.Asking what the ROK got out of the bilateral summit, minor opposition Justice Party leader Lee Jeong-mi said the result of the first day of the summit was "miserable".The ROK president did not say a word against Japan's radioactive water discharge plans, the Justice Party leader said in a statement posted on Facebook.Several ROK organizations rallied over the weekend to voice their disapproval of Kishida's visit. Protesters called for Tokyo's apology over its militarist past, opposed ROK-Japan military cooperation, and demanded a withdrawal of Japan's plan to discharge radioactive wastewater.Yoon's reconciliation plan may have no future with the next administration, said Lakhvinder Singh, director of the peace program at The Asia Institute, a Seoul-based think tank. "Push for reconciliation with Japan is coming from a fast-changing balance of power in the region rather than a genuine desire to forgive Japan for its wartime crimes," Singh said.Due diligence urgedNoting that Yoon has set clear aims for stronger cooperation with the United States and Japan as he said his country is open to a trilateral strategy and nuclear planning against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Singh said it is still more rhetoric than substance.Singh said Yoon is "completely ignoring" how regional countries will react to his growing tilt toward Japan. "I feel he has to use due diligence and think through the whole thing (about) how it will play in a larger regional context," said Singh. "Otherwise, his country might end up paying a heavy price (for) this indulgence."Park Sang-in, a professor at Seoul National University's Graduate School of Public Administration, said that he does not think many people in the ROK will support Yoon's reconciliation moves as long as Japan denies the existence of forced labor.The two leaders also vowed to bolster semiconductor supply chain cooperation but Park said there are no specifics and he does not expect to see any big changes on the ROK side, considering that the damage to ROK companies has been minimal after Japan's previous sanctions on chip materials.In a survey by Gallup Korea in March, nearly 60 percent of people in the ROK opposed the push by Yoon's government to resolve Japan's wartime forced labor issue through a third-party reimbursement plan as it included no apology or reparations from Japan.Summit ignores public demands, avoids real issues, observers sayThe Republic of Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol faced heavy criticism domestically after he was accused of holding a controversial summit without substance and coming away "empty-handed "from his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.In a meeting on Monday, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party said Yoon, who spoke with Kishida in Seoul the previous day, ignored the public's demands to look after national interests. The ROK was the only side that "filled the empty glass" of diplomacy through concessions, Lee was quoted as saying by public broadcaster KBS.Kishida's visit to Seoul was intended to restore the so-called shuttle diplomacy as he made the first official bilateral visit by a Japanese leader to the ROK in over a decade. His two-day visit came after Yoon's March trip to Tokyo.The Democratic Party, the main opposition party, issued a statement saying that "humiliating diplomacy" has become the foundation of the Yoon administration's dialogue with Japan as Kishida did not make an apology for or even acknowledge the ROK forced labor issue during Japan's colonial rule, only mentioning that his "heart aches".Commenting on Kishida's vague statement, Nam Ki-jeong, a professor at the Institute for Japanese Studies at Seoul National University, said it was just a repetition of Tokyo's previous stance. "It's a statement that avoids the essence of the matter," Nam told the local newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun on Sunday.Regarding the deal by Yoon and Kishida that allows ROK experts to visit Fukushima later this month to inspect the planned release of nuclear radioactive water from the Fukushima power plant, the DP said it is intolerable if the Yoon government agreed with the plan just by sending a group of experts there.Asking what the ROK got out of the bilateral summit, minor opposition Justice Party leader Lee Jeong-mi said the result of the first day of the summit was "miserable".The ROK president did not say a word against Japan's radioactive water discharge plans, the Justice Party leader said in a statement posted on Facebook.Several ROK organizations rallied over the weekend to voice their disapproval of Kishida's visit. Protesters called for Tokyo's apology over its militarist past, opposed ROK-Japan military cooperation, and demanded a withdrawal of Japan's plan to discharge radioactive wastewater.Yoon's reconciliation plan may have no future with the next administration, said Lakhvinder Singh, director of the peace program at The Asia Institute, a Seoul-based think tank. "Push for reconciliation with Japan is coming from a fast-changing balance of power in the region rather than a genuine desire to forgive Japan for its wartime crimes," Singh said.Due diligence urgedNoting that Yoon has set clear aims for stronger cooperation with the United States and Japan as he said his country is open to a trilateral strategy and nuclear planning against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Singh said it is still more rhetoric than substance.Singh said Yoon is "completely ignoring" how regional countries will react to his growing tilt toward Japan. "I feel he has to use due diligence and think through the whole thing (about) how it will play in a larger regional context," said Singh. "Otherwise, his country might end up paying a heavy price (for) this indulgence."Park Sang-in, a professor at Seoul National University's Graduate School of Public Administration, said that he does not think many people in the ROK will support Yoon's reconciliation moves as long as Japan denies the existence of forced labor.The two leaders also vowed to bolster semiconductor supply chain cooperation but Park said there are no specifics and he does not expect to see any big changes on the ROK side, considering that the damage to ROK companies has been minimal after Japan's previous sanctions on chip materials.In a survey by Gallup Korea in March, nearly 60 percent of people in the ROK opposed the push by Yoon's government to resolve Japan's wartime forced labor issue through a third-party reimbursement plan as it included no apology or reparations from Japan.
