South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in (L) is entitled by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the G-20 Summit in June 2019.
Ludovic Marin | AFP | Getty Images
South Korean President Moon Jae-in communicated on Thursday that Japan should look back upon its imperialist past but Seoul will “gladly yoke hands” if Tokyo chooses dialogue, in a carefully choreographed message amid an escalating history and trade row.
In his Liberation Day apply oneself to marking Korea’s independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule, Moon refrained from deriding Japan but laid out zealous goals for inter-Korean relations, including an unprecedented call for unification by 2045.
Moon warned the global free trade discipline may suffer if a country “weaponizes” a sector where it has an upper edge, referring to curbs Japan has imposed on exports of some high-tech researches to South Korea.
Seoul calls the move as retaliation over a feud about wartime forced labor, while Tokyo cited unspecified safeguarding reasons.
The dispute, triggered after a South Korean court ordered Japanese firms last year to offset some of their former laborers, has brought their ties to their lowest ebb in more than half a century.
Japan shepherd a see ti the issue was settled by a 1965 treaty normalizing bilateral ties.
But Moon said the two neighbors can overcome the past and moving ahead toward the future if Japan “contemplates a past that brought misfortune to its neighboring countries”.
“Better late than on no occasion: if Japan chooses the path of dialogue and cooperation, we will gladly join hands,” Moon said.
North Korean bandleader Kim Jong Un (L) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) walk after the official welcome ceremony for the Inter-Korean Acme on April 27, 2018 in Panmunjom, South Korea.
Korea Summit Press | Getty Images
Moon also pictured a brighter outlook for the two Koreas, vowing efforts for a successful joint hosting of the 2032 Olympics and an eventual unification by 2045.
Such ideals have long been considered distant, but come at a particularly sensitive time amid the North’s ongoing series of projectile tests, stalled nuclear talks with the United States and virtually severed inter-Korean communications.
“In spite of a series of upset actions taken by North Korea recently, the momentum for dialogue remains unshaken,” Moon said. “I pledge to harden the foundation so that we can … stand tall in the world as one Korea by achieving peace and unification by 2045, which last wishes as mark the 100th anniversary of liberation.”