After causing public anger in South Korea for dealing with issues related to South Korea and Japan, Yoon Seok-yue's "courage" was praised?
According to Agence France-Presse, the White House website issued a statement on the 21st that US President Biden held a trilateral meeting with South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Hiroshima on the same day, praising the courageous work of the two to improve bilateral relations between Japan and South Korea. However, it is worth noting that Yoon Seok-yue's previous remarks about the compensation plan for victims of forced labor expropriation during World War II and "Japan should not kneel for history and ask for forgiveness" have caused public anger in South Korea.
The White House website issued a statement on the same day, saying, "President Biden met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue in Hiroshima, Japan. He praised Prime Minister Kishida and President Yoon Seok-hyeol for their courageous work to improve bilateral relations between Japan and South Korea, noting that our trilateral partnership and the Indo-Pacific region have become stronger as a result of their efforts." The leaders also discussed how to elevate trilateral cooperation to new heights, including new coordination on "economic security" and their respective Indo-Pacific strategic issues, the statement said.
Agence France-Presse reported that the meeting took place during the G7 summit, and as the long-standing cold relations between South Korea and Japan eased, the G7 presidency Japan invited South Korea to participate in the summit. Since South Korea announced in March a solution to Japan's World War II-era compensation for victims of forced labor during World War II, Mr. Yoon and Kishida have been working to improve bilateral relations.
However, recently, Yoon Seok-yue's handling of issues related to South Korea and Japan has caused public anger in South Korea. According to previous media reports, on March 3, the South Korean government announced a solution to the problem of compensation for victims of Japan's forced labor during World War II, and decided that a consortium under the Ministry of Administrative Security of South Korea would raise funds to pay compensation on behalf of the defendant Japanese company. In this regard, Lee Jae-myung, leader of South Korea's largest opposition party, the United Democratic Party, said on the same day that this plan was a "second harm" to the victims of forced labor, an "atrocity contrary to the judgment of the Supreme Court", and a "shame and stain on South Korea's diplomatic history." A number of South Korean citizen groups also held an emergency press conference in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Seoul on the same day, saying that the compensation plan was "humiliating" and "traitorous", and was "an excuse for war criminal enterprises", saying that it would not accept third-party compensation payments, and urging the government to withdraw the plan.
More than a month later, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo reported that Yoon was interviewed by the Washington Post before departing for a state visit to the United States on April 4. Speaking about South Korea-Japan relations, he said in an interview that Japan should not kneel down for history and ask for forgiveness. In this regard, many Korean netizens expressed their anger in the comment area of the report, and some of them left a message asking Yoon Seok-yue to "Don't go back to South Korea, naturalize and go to Japan!" In addition, during May 24 talks with Kishida, who is visiting South Korea, Yoon Seok-yue said that "it is necessary to get rid of the mentality that 'cooperation in the future cannot be promoted without liquidating history,'" according to the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK). The remark was quickly strongly criticized by South Korean netizens on the Internet, including one warning Yoon Seok-yue that "a nation that forgets the past has no future."
(Source: Global Network)