President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that South Korea and Japan are now partners sharing universal values and pursuing common interests, and called for strengthening trilateral security cooperation with Japan and the United States to counter threats from North Korea.
Yoon made the remarks in a Liberation Day address commemorating the end of Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, stressing the importance of the neighboring country's role in deterring aggression by the North.
The address was yet another testament to Yoon's commitment to improve relations with Tokyo that had frayed badly under the previous administration over wartime forced labor and other thorny issues stemming from colonial rule.
"Korea and Japan are now partners who share universal values and pursue common interests," Yoon said during a Liberation Day ceremony held at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. "As partners that cooperate on security and the economy, Korea and Japan will be able to jointly contribute to peace and prosperity across the globe while collaborating and exchanging in a future-oriented manner."
Yoon also cited Japan's role in deterring a North Korean invasion of the South by providing seven rear bases to the United Nations Command that oversees the Armistice Agreement that ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.
Yoon also called for stronger trilateral security cooperation with Tokyo and Washington.
"The significance of ROK-U.S.-Japan trilateral security cooperation is increasingly growing on the Korean Peninsula and in the region," he said, using the acronym for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.
"In order to fundamentally block North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, the Republic of Korea, the United States and Japan must closely cooperate on reconnaissance assets and share North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles data in real time," he said.
South Korea-Japan relations have improved significantly since the Yoon administration decided in March to compensate Korean victims of Japanese wartime forced labor on its own without asking for contributions from the Japanese businesses involved.
Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have held multiple summits, including during bilateral visits to each other's countries in March and May, respectively.
On Friday, the two leaders are scheduled to hold a trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden at the U.S. presidential retreat Camp David, near Washington, the first time the three countries' leaders will meet for a standalone summit not on the sidelines of a multilateral event.
Yoon said the summit will "set a new milestone in trilateral cooperation contributing to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific region."
He also reaffirmed his commitment to the Audacious Initiative he proposed last year to significantly rebuild North Korea's economy if Pyongyang takes steps toward substantial denuclearization.
"While steadfastly implementing the Audacious Initiative to build peace by overwhelming force, the government will also work together with the international community to make the North Korean regime stop advancing its nuclear and missile programs and embark on a path to dialogue and cooperation, which will lead to better livelihoods of its people," he said.
Yoon called attention to what he called "anti-state forces" that he said blindly follow communist totalitarianism, distort public opinion and disrupt society through manipulative propaganda.
"The forces of communist totalitarianism have always disguised themselves as democracy activists, human rights advocates or progressive activists while engaging in despicable and unethical tactics and false propaganda," he said. "We must never succumb to the forces of communist totalitarianism. We must not be deceived by those who follow and serve them."
Yoon also reiterated his vision of making South Korea a "global pivotal state" that fulfills its
roles and responsibilities in the international community.
Source: Yonhap News Agency