South Korea forced labor court ruling

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 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.

The Seoul Central District Court ruling might help lower temperatures, but a political solution is needed to improve South Korea’s relations with Japan.

The decision seemed to contradict 2018 Supreme Courts rulings against Japanese firms, which had enraged Tokyo.

The Biden administration must avoid the fundamental flaw of previous reparations arrangements: prioritizing state interests over victims’ concerns.

A spate of recent exchanges could be seen as an accomplishment in and of itself, but there has been little concrete progress toward a solution on the forced labor issue.

In fact, the agreement makes the path to resolution quite clear.