China News Service, July 20, reported that South Korea’s Blue House announced on the 19th that Moon Jae-in would not visit Japan during the Tokyo Olympics.

Some people worry that this will pour cold water on South Korea-Japan relations.

The "old hatred" between the two countries has not yet ended. Recently, due to the Tokyo Olympics and disputes over island sovereignty and other issues, "new enemies" have been added. It may be difficult to usher in a easing turn of relations in the short term.

Data map: South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Photo courtesy of the Blue House

Moon Jae-in won't go to the Tokyo Olympics

South Korea-Japan summit has ended

  Japan's "Yomiuri Shimbun" reported on the 19th that Moon Jae-in will hold a South Korea-Japan summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on the opening day of the Tokyo Olympics on the 23rd.

  Park Soo-hyun, chief secretary of South Korea’s Blue House and People’s Communication, asked whether Moon Jae-in would attend the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics earlier that day and said that there is no conclusion yet.

In the afternoon of the same day, the Blue House made it clear that Moon Jae-in would not visit Japan during the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

  Park Soo-hyun, chief secretary of the Blue House National Communication, said at a press conference that day, South Korea and Japan have made construction based on the possibility of holding talks between the leaders of the two countries during the Tokyo Olympics, the unresolved historical issues between the two countries, and the direction of future-oriented cooperation. South Korea made the above decision after comprehensively considering "other circumstances", but failed to achieve the expected results.

  According to the speculation of diplomats, the Blue House may ask Japan to lift export controls on South Korea and take measures to solve historical problems, but the Japanese side refused.

On this basis, Moon Jae-in may judge that his rash visit to Japan will be fruitless, and it will instead put the dominant power in the relationship between South Korea and Japan in the hands of Japan.

Data map: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

The old hatred is not there yet a new hatred

The war continues to the Tokyo Olympics

  In recent years, the relations between Japan and South Korea have fallen to a freezing point due to the forced recruitment of labor, comfort women, trade issues, territorial disputes, and Fukushima nuclear waste water during World War II.

The "enmity" accumulated before has not been eliminated, and the two countries have added "new enmity" recently.

  First, in the "Defense White Paper" released in July, Japan advocated sovereignty over the disputed islands between South Korea and Japan (Korean called "Dokdo" and Japan called "Takeshima"), which triggered dissatisfaction from the South Korean side and strongly protested and urged Japan to immediately Withdraw related claims.

  Subsequently, the Japanese Minister in South Korea, Soma Hiroshang, made insulting remarks against Moon Jae-in.

  A senior official in the South Korean President’s Office said frankly that after Soma Hongshang’s remarks were exposed, the Blue House had doubts about whether to continue to promote the president’s visit to Japan.

  On the other hand, as the Tokyo Olympics is approaching, the political war between Japan and South Korea has spread to the East Olympics venue.

  At present, South Korean officials have confirmed that in order to prevent players from eating Fukushima ingredients with excessive radioactive materials, the Korean side has rented a hotel near the Olympic Village to provide meals for Korean players and prepare cesium detectors. Kimchi and Japanese local ingredients are tested uniformly.

The governor of Fukushima Prefecture Masao Uchibori defended Fukushima Foods and accused the Korean medicine of not being scientific.

  In addition, the South Korean delegation immediately hung the South Korean flag outside the balcony after staying in the Olympic Village a few days ago, as well as a banner rewritten from the famous saying of the 16th-century anti-Japanese warrior Yi Sun-sin, which read "The minister still has 50 million people support and support."

Japanese people believe that the banners are "anti-Japanese", and there are even right-wing groups holding the rising sun flag, which symbolizes Japanese militarism, and demonstrating near the Olympic Village.

  The International Olympic Committee (IOC) hurried to mediate.

South Korea agreed to remove the above banner after receiving the IOC's written undertaking to ban the rising sun flag on the Olympic venues, but replaced it with a "tiger" straight flag, on which there are suspected islands in dispute between Japan and South Korea.

  Japanese netizens believe that South Korea is expressing "sovereignty" and is suspected of violating the Olympic Charter.

Data map: Olympic Village for the Tokyo Olympics.

South Korea-Japan relations may cool down again

Difficult to welcome a turnaround in the short term

  On the 19th, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga responded to Moon Jae-in’s cancellation of his visit to Japan, stating that he hoped to continue to communicate with South Korea in order to rebuild “healthy neighbourhood relations”.

  Senior officials of the Blue House also stated that the South Korean government will continue to strive for dialogue with Japan to promote the future development of bilateral relations and hope that the leaders of the two countries will have the opportunity to meet.

  So far, Moon Jae-in has not held a face-to-face meeting with Suga Yoshihide.

Although the United States, as a common ally of the two countries, intends to mediate from it, it has little effect.

  Korean media analysis pointed out that the relevant decision will further cool the relationship between South Korea and Japan.

To resolve the relationship between the two countries, a fair dialogue between the leaders is a practical and feasible strategy. However, the leaders of the two countries did not meet at the G7 summit in June, nor did they meet at the opening ceremony of the upcoming East Olympics. Will meet.

  Coupled with the frequent occurrence of contradictions between the two countries recently, and the successive occurrence of incidents that conflict with the sentiments of the South Korean public, it is expected that the relationship between South Korea and Japan will hardly be reversed in the short term.

  In addition, South Korea and Japan will hold elections for the new president and the House of Representatives in the near future. It is expected that the two countries will not be willing to show weakness first.

Some people worry that relations between the two countries will continue to be at a deadlock.