South Korea President Moon says he is 'willing to hold talks' with Japanese counterpart

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said in a press briefing that he was “willing to hold talks” with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe and resolve historic disputes on the occasion of 75th anniversary of WWII when South Korea attained liberation from 1910-1945 Japanese occupation. Speaking at the conference on August 14, Moon said that the door for negotiation was still “wide-open”, extending an olive branch to mend bitter feuds between the two nations. 

In a nationally televised speech, Moon said that South Korea was willing to have consultations over the pending legal disputes of compensations to Korean labourers at mines, factories and other sites in Japan.

The two nations have had bitter relations over South Korea's Supreme Court’s verdict that required the Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp to pay 100 million won ($84,000) each to 4 Korean “forced labour” in 2018. Japan had reinstated that the verdict violated the international law and claimed that all compensations were settled in the 1965 diplomatic treaty during Japan's colonisation of South Korea.  

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Abandoned a pact in 2015

While South Korea’s Moon had called Japan’s Abe to comply with judiciary’s ruling, Japan in retaliation halted key shipments to South Korea that involved tech material products essential to Korea’s electronic manufacturing landscape in 2018.

Meanwhile, South Korea approached the World Trade Organization launching formal complaints against Japan’s trade embargo. However, in a renewed focus to unravel the bilateral disputes, Moon said that South Korea can hold discussions with the Japanese government on “amicable solution” with unanimous resolution agreed on by the victims. 

Further, in his live streamed speech, Moon discussed the plight of South Korea's few remaining "comfort women" survivors. Commemorating the wartime sexual victims, Moon said that these were some of the “thorny” issues that South Korea was willing to resolve.

In 2015, Japan’s Shinzo Abe and Moon had abandoned a pact over the dismantling of relations that sought compensation and apology to the wartime sexual crime victims, according to reports. Emphasizing the importance of 'victim-centrism', Moon urged his counterpart to honour the desires of the survivors.  

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