President Moon Slams Japan’s Dishonesty Over Trade Restrictions

Here is what President Moon had to say about Japan’s trade restrictions that were implemented this week on South Korea:

President Moon Jae-in slammed Japan’s removal of Korea from its “white list” of trusted trading partners, urging Tokyo to become more “honest” about its reason and to acknowledge its historical wrongdoings on Thursday.  

Moon said that the Japanese government’s recent action was “very regrettable” as he held a cabinet meeting on next year’s budget in the Blue House, noting that Tokyo has “linked historical issues to economic matters,” calling its attitude “very disingenuous.”

Japan on Wednesday removed Korea from its white list of countries given preferential treatment in exports, implementing a decision reached by its cabinet at the beginning of this month.  

The Japanese government has yet to “state an honest reason for its economic retaliation,” Moon said, noting that it has shifted its rhetoric “as frequently as necessary.”

Tokyo’s export regulations implemented since the beginning of July are widely seen as retaliation for Korean Supreme Court rulings last year ordering Japanese companies to compensate Korean victims of forced labor during World War II. The top court acknowledged the illegality of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule over Korea and recognized that the victims’ rights to individual compensation have not expired.  

Japan has yet to officially acknowledge that its economic retaliations are a result of the forced labor rulings and instead has been citing national security concerns and a breach of “trust” as reasons for exports controls on Korea.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

Japan says the trade restrictions were put in place to help prevent illegal exports from South Korea to North Korea. There has been illegal exports to North Korea, but I think everyone knows the real reason for the trade restrictions is because of the threat to seize assets from Japanese companies over past historical issues. That is why Moon is calling the restrictions dishonest.

Moon goes on:

Moon further said that Tokyo “has been never honest” on historical issues, noting that Japan “was the perpetrator behind unfortunate chapters of history” in Korea and many other Asian countries.

The president said that Tokyo claiming the Dokdo islets in the East Sea, which Japan calls Takeshima, is “preposterous” as the islets are considered the first territory “to fall victim to imperial Japan’s aggression.”  

South Korea clearly owns Dokdo, but the Japanese government continues to make claims to it mainly because of the Kuril Islands occupied by Russia. If Japan drops their claim to Dokdo the Russian government could say that since Japan has recognized the ROK occupation of the Dokdo Islets as legitimizing the ownership of that islet, than the Russian occupation of the Kuril Islands after World War II should be legitimized as well.

Moon continues:

He pointed out that this “attitude” of the Japanese government, which distorts history and “neither acknowledges nor repents its past wrongdoings,” only “aggravates the wounds and anguish of the victims.”

Moon said it “is never shameful to remember and reflect on the past,” noting every country has such moments.  

“Recollection and self-reflection about the past can never be completed,” he said, and cannot be “brought to conclusion just by saying that repentance is over because it was uttered once, or that the past is completely over because an agreement was reached once.”

Tokyo claims that a 1965 treaty normalizing bilateral relations with Korea, which provided an economic cooperation fund, settled all compensation matters.

Japan has made multiple apologies and have clearly hit apology fatigue over their historical issues with South Korea. I am still waiting for the Moon administration to demand China and North Korea “repent on its past wrong doings” like he is saying Japan should continue to do. The destruction caused by North Korea and China during the Korean War was far worse than what Japan did during their colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula. Plus China continues to have their economic retaliation in place against South Korea over the THAAD issue.

Also it is interesting that Moon says that since an agreement was reached once doesn’t mean that matter is really settled which how he is likely justifying the withdrawing out of the comfort women agreement reached during the Park Geun-hye administration and demanding more compensation for Japan.

Most people probably felt the relationship with Japan was likely to go poorly once President Moon was elected after much progress during the Park administration was made to normalize the relationship. I don’t think anyone thought the relationship would get this bad though.