The foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan met in Seoul yesterday to discuss strengthening their relations in the face of increasing security challenges in the region and political tumult in the host nation.
It marked the highest-level diplomatic meeting between the nations since South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial law last month, a move that has triggered political turmoil in one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies.
It also came amid heightened concerns about North Korea’s missile testing and deepening security pact with Russia, and China’s increasingly muscular attempts to assert its maritime claims in the South and East China seas.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The security situation in this region is becoming very severe, and in that strategic environment the importance of Japan-ROK [Republic of Korea] relations has not changed, and in fact has become increasingly important,” Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya said at a joint news conference with South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul.
Iwaya yesterday was also due to meet Acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok, who is standing in for the impeached Yoon.
Yoon has been holed up in his hillside villa in Seoul since parliament voted to suspend him last month over his martial law decree on Dec. 3, with investigators vowing to arrest him in a separate probe into possible insurrection.
At their news conference, Iwaya and Choi also reiterated the importance of developing three-way security cooperation with their shared ally, the US.
With the administration of US president-elect Donald Trump set to begin on Monday next week, none of the original leaders who established the security pact between the nations in 2023 — US President Joe Biden, Yoon and former Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida — would remain in power.
Yoon had made it a diplomatic priority to mend ties with Tokyo — often strained by historic issues — and pursue a joint security drive with Washington to tackle North Korea’s military threats.
In a nod to those efforts to put aside historic issues, Iwaya earlier yesterday visited the Seoul National Cemetery which honors Korean veterans, including those who died seeking independence from Japanese colonial rule, which ended in 1945.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week on a visit to South Korea expressed confidence in Seoul’s democratic process, although he said that Washington had expressed “serious concerns” over some of the actions Yoon took over the course of his martial law declaration.
Despite polls showing a majority of South Koreans disapprove of Yoon’s martial law declaration and support his impeachment, his ruling People Power Party has enjoyed somewhat of a revival.
Support for the party stood at 40.8 percent in the latest Realmeter poll released yesterday, while the main opposition Democratic Party’s support stood at 42.2 percent, within a margin of error and down from a gap of 10.8 percent last week, the poll said.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘INDISCRIMINATE’: The drastic changes would delay many national projects as well as undermine global confidence in Taiwan’s resolve to defend itself, the premier said The Legislative Yuan yesterday on third reading passed the central government budget for this year, cutting 6.6 percent from the Executive Yuan’s proposed expenditure — the largest in history. The budget proposal, which the Cabinet approved in August last year, set government spending at NT$3.1325 trillion (US$95.6 billion), with projected revenues of NT$3.1534 trillion — both record highs — working out to a surplus of NT$20.9 billion. On Friday last week, the opposition-led legislature voted to cut NT$93.98 billion from the budget’s general provisions. During a 20-hour continuous session from Monday until yesterday morning, they continued to slash the budgets of government agencies,
RSS