Historical issues in Northeast Asia

The Yoon administration's plan to resolve forced labor disputes with Japan is already sparking controversy at home.

Ties between the two U.S. Asian allies have long been complicated by grievances related to Japan's brutal rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

Why are Japan and South Korea, both U.S. allies and East Asian democracies, continuously at odds over everything from their territorial dispute to wartime labor compensation?

Yoon emphasized his support for “freedom” in a U.N. General Assembly address, but most attention focused on the dimming chances of a summit with Japan’s Kishida Fumio. 

With tensions rising in the Indo-Pacific, Beijing’s new triumphalism takes aim at one-time ally U.S., while Washington and its regional partners embrace former foe Japan’s historical revisionism.

With relatively new governments and a pressing threat from North Korea, the timing to renew Seoul and Tokyo ties is better now than it has been in years.

The Yoon administration has expressed a strong willingness to improve bilateral ties with Japan, but Tokyo seems unwilling to budge on the central issues. 

Park Jin became the first South Korean foreign minister to visit Tokyo since 2019.

With a new consultative body to address forced labor issues, the Yoon administration is seeking to prevent the issues that scuttled the 2015 "comfort women" agreement.

Tensions between the two are frozen over, but president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has spoken of his interest in a thaw.

There has been a fundamental shift in the dynamics surrounding Japan-South Korea relations, with both sides hardening their approach.