South Korea eyes new Japan pact to mark 60 years of ties, but can it cement improving relations?

Yoon’s hopes to further enhance the relationship were outlined in comments by a senior official from his office to foreign and domestic media earlier this month. Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper reported on March 13 that the official said Yoon hoped to visit Japan and that Seoul wanted to build on the 1998 Japan-Republic of Korea Joint Declaration, which outlined a future-oriented relationship.

Officially, there has been no comment from Tokyo on the outreach from Seoul, but it is known that the two sides have been in discussions on a range of topics, including official visits.

Analysts caution, however, that while Tokyo favours better security and trade ties with its near-neighbour, it remains wary out of concern that any new administration after Yoon could walk back – or even walk away from – an agreement.

Four years later, under a new government in Seoul, the foundation was dissolved and the agreement effectively annulled.

“The Japanese government, I think, is going to be very wary,” said Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Tokyo.

Japan was concerned that a new agreement could be seen as a renegotiation of the 1965 pact that normalised diplomatic relations, two decades after Japan’s defeat in World War II, which saw Tokyo pay US$300 million in compensation, he said.

“Japan is also probably worried that a new Korean government could go back on any deal, just as they did on the ‘comfort women’ agreement in 2019,” Hinata-Yamaguchi said. The difference is one of perception, he suggested.

“Japan says historical issues have been settled, but South Koreans say they are only just getting started on negotiations and many there say Japan has been let off the hook far too easily,” he