South Korea’s ambassador to Japan said “high-level” talks were underway for a tripartite summit with China that is expected to take a position this year and would not improve relations with the United States.
Those talks are going well, Yun Dukmin, Seoul’s envoy to Japan, said in an interview. There may simply be a “Camp David effect” that pushed China to pull closer to its neighbors, Yun said, adding that a summit with Beijing will not hurt relations with Washington after the historic meeting with senior U. S. officials from the 3 Asian countries. It is scheduled to meet in Seoul on September 26.
South Korea is running to revive the tripartite summits between Japan and China, which have been stalled since 2019, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But Beijing angered President Joe Biden’s historic summit in August at the Camp David presidential retreat with the leaders of South Korea and Japan, saying it was a planned attempt to sow discord among the Asian neighbors.
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“Japan-South Korea relations have progressed to become an environment that China has not experienced in the past decade,” Yun said Wednesday. “It would be better for the stability of the region if neighboring countries cooperated and got along. “instead of fighting each other this way. “
Appointed to his post about two months after President Yoon Suk Yeol took office in May 2022, Yun said South Korea’s ties with Japan were very different from those of his early days. Relations were strained due to a dispute over the reimbursement of Japanese colonial Korean personnel. In March, Yoon overcame a hurdle in relations when Seoul dropped its request that Japanese corporations compensate Koreans recruited to work in Japanese mines and factories, but that it would create its own fund for them. .
The breakthrough aimed at ending a dispute that had disrupted ties across everything from industry to security has drawn praise from Biden, who must convince the two U. S. allies to form a more united front against China and North Korea.
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Biden has sought partners to save Beijing from access to complex semiconductors. Japan has limited exports of some chip-making tools, following similar measures in the United States and the Netherlands. South Korea has been somewhat hesitant, as giant corporations such as Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. count China as a market and production location for their memory chips.
The ambassador said it would likely only be a matter of time before Chinese semiconductor makers move up the price chain and surpass what South Korean giants make domestically. He said South Korea’s cellphone makers, branch operators and automakers have noticed their market. percentage decline in China as domestic industries have grown.
“We are still very dependent on China, but an unexpected number of corporations have left China,” Yun said. “We can’t completely abandon the Chinese market, but overall, the Chinese market is not going to remain open permanently. “, the next few years will be an era for Korean semiconductor corporations.
At the same time, with Japan we have made very rapid progress, which will lead to a major shift in the regional strategic landscape, Yun said.
“When I arrived here last year, the whole Japanese society was very, very bloodless towards Korea, to the point that I wondered if it was imaginable that they would be so bloodless,” he said.
Yun is trying to build on existing momentum to forge another with Japan, as they did a quarter-century ago, to shore up improved ties, which could keep industrial flows robust in the face of political tensions.
South Korean corporations are starting to invest in Japan again, he said. This includes small and medium-sized businesses, as well as giants like Samsung, which is setting up an R center.
Yun said security cooperation with Japan and the United States is poised to expand as those countries face nuclear threats from countries such as North Korea. Biden confided in Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that the U. S. nuclear policy known as prolonged deterrence stands. The strategy is to exert force strong enough to convince an adversary that it will achieve its military and political objectives through aggression.
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In recent years, North Korea has tested a barrage of missiles aimed at striking South Korea and Japan, as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles intended to deliver a nuclear warhead on the U. S. mainland. That could raise tough questions for Washington, the ambassador said.
“There is the question of whether the United States would retaliate against Pyongyang at New York’s expense if Tokyo or Seoul were attacked,” he said.
Yun also commented on other problems in the interview. Regarding the discharge of sewage from the Fukushima nuclear site, he said: “The Japanese prime minister also said in his meeting with our president that he would never interfere in a way that could compromise the safety of the Korean people. “
On tourism: “We are now talking about expanding flights and resuming flights between cities in the region that have been lost due to Covid. A little more time is needed, but the infrastructure is being replenished, so we hope that this congestion with Japan will be alleviated. “
And on Kim Jong Un’s trip to Russia: “We’ll have to wait and see if it’s just an exhibition or something really extensive and I think it’s very politically motivated to take pictures and do things that way when in fact it’s something that can be done in secret without making a fuss.
—With by Isabel Reynolds and Sam Kim.