March 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, has defended this Tuesday that Seoul and Tokyo should “leave the past behind” in order to improve the complicated relations between the two countries.
“Korea-Japan relations must go beyond the past, (…) they can and must be a win-win relationship, work together and win more together,” he told a cabinet meeting, according to reports. reported the Yonhap news agency.
The South Korean leader has criticized the previous government, led by Moon Jae In, for not having acted in favor of “deeply stalled relations” with the archipelago.
“He could also have chosen the comfortable path of immediate political gain and left the worst Korea-Japan relations as they are,” Yoon said, expressing confidence that his cabinet “is moving in the right direction.”
He has also added that he considers that “he would be failing” his “obligations as president if he provoked hostile nationalism and anti-Japanese sentiment in domestic politics.”
Yoon’s remarks come amid criticism from the main opposition Democratic Party, after the South Korean government decided to compensate victims of forced labor by Japanese companies during the war through donations.
In addition, the opposition has questioned whether the president has made unannounced concessions to the neighboring country, as Japanese media have reported that the two leaders have discussed other difficult issues in South Korea-Japan relations, such as the sexual slavery of women. Japanese troops or the Liancourt islets, known as Takeshima in Tokyo and Dokdo in Seoul.
In this sense, Yoon has lamented that “there are still forces that shout exclusive nationalism, shout anti-Japanese and obtain political gain.”
