SEOUL, Sept 27 (Askume) – South Korea’s Foreign Ministry released a speech after Shigeru Ishiba was elected leader of Japan’s ruling party , calling on Japan’s new government to establish positive ties with its closest neighbours and partners.
President Yun Suk-yol has made it his diplomatic priority to overcome years of hostility born of Japan’s wartime history, improve relations with Tokyo and establish trilateral security cooperation with the United States.
“South Korea and Japan are close neighbors and partners, sharing common values of freedom, human rights and the rule of law, and pursuing common interests in security, economics and the global agenda,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said.
“This administration hopes that our two countries will actively work together to improve our relations in the future.”
Ishiba, who is leading the Liberal Democratic Party for the fifth and last time, will become Japan’s next prime minister after a close-contested victory.
Before Yoon takes office in 2022, relations between the two US regional allies have fallen to their lowest point in decades amid a bitter diplomatic and trade dispute over Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Yun have forged a new partnership after improving ties at the behest of US President Joe Biden.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency described Japan’s relations with South Korea as “pigeon-toting” and cited past comments questioning whether Japan should make amends for its role in World War II and take concrete measures against India, hurting ties between the two neighbouring countries.
