South Korea extends olive branch to Japan over wartime history

On South Korea’s liberation day, its President Moon Jae-in says his country has “left the door of consultations wide open” for Japan.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks during the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Liberation Day, at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), Seoul, South Korea, on August 15, 2020.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in offered talks with Japan to resolve a bitter feud over wartime grievances as the nation celebrated the 75th anniversary of its liberation from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II.

In a nationally televised speech, Mr. Moon said that his government has “left the door of consultations wide open” for Japan to settle a long legal and diplomatic dispute over compensation for Koreans who had been subjected to forced labor at mines, factories and other sites.

Relations between both the countries sank to their lowest point in decades last year as they allowed their disagreements over wartime history to spill over into issues related to trade and military cooperation.

Mr. Moon, who tempered his words, avoided direct criticism of the conservative Japanese government of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, which has insisted that all compensation issues were settled when the two countries normalized relations under a 1965 treaty.

Japan’s stance was refuted by South Korea’s Supreme Court in 2018, when it ruled that the deal did not cover individual rights to seek reparations and called on Japanese companies to compensate aging Korean plaintiffs who had been forced into slave labor.

"Our government is ready to sit face-to-face with the Japanese government at any time” to find a mutual solution the victims can support, Mr. Moon said. He said the process would help build a “bridge of friendship and future cooperation” between the countries.

Tokyo didn’t immediately respond to Mr. Moon’s comments.

In a move Seoul saw as retaliation for the court ruling, Japan last year tightened export restrictions on certain high-tech materials used by major South Korean companies to produce semiconductors and smartphone displays - key exports for South Korea. South Korea has proceed with a complaint to the World Trade Organization.

Mr. Moon also called for North Korea to respond to South Korean proposals for bilateral cooperation, including joint programmes against COVID-19 and other diseases, and the resumption of temporary reunions between aging relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.