SEOUL -- U.S. President Donald Trump directly urged South Korean President Moon Jae-in to improve Japan-South Korea relations during their April 11 meeting in Washington, according to multiple sources close to the Japanese, U.S., and South Korean governments.
It is unusual for Trump to have expressed concern over the bilateral relationship between Japan and South Korea, which has continued to worsen due to wartime labor lawsuits brought by South Korean plaintiffs and a South Korean destroyer locking its fire-control radar on a Japanese patrol plane.
According to the sources, Trump brought up the issue of the Japan-South Korea relationship with Moon, saying that the situation should be improved. Trump appears not to have gone into specifics. The sources said that the United States is concerned about the possible impact of a deteriorating relationship between Japan and South Korea on security cooperation between Japan, the United States and South Korea.
Since the South Korean naval warship locked its fire-control radar on a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force's P-1 patrol aircraft in December 2018, defense cooperation between the two countries has been sluggish. Unless the situation is addressed, the United States is concerned it will deal a blow to the free and open Indo-Pacific vision, which has been promoted by the United States in cooperation with its allies to counter China's maritime expansion.
The Moon administration, which has taken a tough stance on historical issues, has been negative about improving the relationship with Japan. However, after the U.S.-South Korea summit last month, it has reportedly begun fully considering improving the bilateral ties under the initiative of president's office.
According to the sources, the South Korean government proposed holding a Japan-South Korea Defense Ministers' meeting, which is currently being arranged to be held in line with an international conference scheduled in early June in Singapore. The Moon administration apparently judged it would be necessary to respond to Trump's request in order to obtain cooperation from the United States for resolving the North Korean issues that are South Korea's priority.
Moon has also expressed his willingness to hold a summit meeting with Japan in line with the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in late June.
Japan, meanwhile, maintains the position that it is difficult to hold such a meeting without any progress in the wartime labor issue, which is a major issue for Japan.
With regard to the South Korean Supreme Court's ruling in October last year that upheld a lower court's decision to order Japanese firms to pay compensation to wartime South Korean workers, the Japanese government called for setting up an arbitration committee based on the 1965 Agreement on the Settlement of Problems Concerning Property and Claims and on Economic Cooperation between Japan and the Republic of Korea.
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