Japan-South Korea summit what has kept the two side apart

Japan-South Korea summit what has kept the two side apart

Subject :International relations

Section: International Events

Context:

• Japan and South Korea agreed to resume regular visits between their leaders after 12 years.

What are the issues:

• Colonization of Korean Peninsula by Japan

1. Japan effectively colonized the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945, in a regime that imposed Japanese names and language on Koreans.
2. During this period, Japan conscripted many into forced labor or forced prostitution in military brothels.
3. Japan paid $800 million in reparations to South Korea’s military-run government in 1965, but this money was never distributed to victims.
4. Recently, Seoul has offered Tokyo concessions on South Korean demands for compensation over wartime forced labor.However, it remains to be seen whether the South Korean public will accept reconciliation.

• Longstanding territorial dispute

1. The two sides also have a longstanding territorial dispute over a group of islands controlled by South Korea and claimed by Japan. 
2. Regular visits between top leaders of both the countries ended in 2012 after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited the disputed islands.

• Escalation of tensions in recent years

1. Tensions escalated in the past 10 years as conservative Japanese governments moved to rearm the country while stepping up attempts to whitewash Japan’s wartime atrocities.
2. In 2018 South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered Japan’s Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate forced labour victims.
3. In 2019, Japan placed export controls on chemicals used to make semiconductors and displays used in smartphones and other high-tech devices.