August 25, 2025
SEOUL – The top leaders of South Korea and Japan announced the first joint statement between their countries in 17 years, pledging to build “future-oriented ties” during their second summit, as part of President Lee Jae Myung’s visit to Tokyo, which resumed the lapsed “shuttle diplomacy.”
At the joint press conference following the summit held at Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s official residence, the two leaders agreed to establish consultative groups to address common societal challenges such as the demographic crisis and sluggish regional economic growth.
Seoul and Tokyo agreed to promote cooperation in the fields of hydrogen, ammonia and artificial intelligence, and to expand their bilateral “working holiday” program to further boost people-to-people exchanges, which are already at an all-time high. They also reiterated shared objectives of achieving the complete denuclearization of North Korea and enhancing trilateral coordination with the United States.
The summit lasted two hours — longer than scheduled — and the meeting enabled the leaders to “develop closer ties and build trust,” Lee’s national security adviser Wi Sung-lac told reporters Sunday.
Tokyo marks Lee’s first overseas trip for a bilateral summit since his inauguration in early June. He is the first South Korean president since Park Chung-hee — who made a brief visit to Tokyo in November 1961, before diplomatic normalization in 1965 — to travel to Japan ahead of the United States, the country’s key ally.
During their summit, Ishiba expressed gratitude for Lee being the first Korean leader to visit Japan so swiftly in the 60 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Lee, in turn, pledged to keep the hatchet buried between the countries and overcome challenges in regional security and the economy.
“We share a lot in common, we cooperate in a wide range of fields, but sometimes unnecessary conflicts occur because we are too close as neighbors,” said Lee, who has often described the bilateral relationship as “neighbors who share a front yard.”
The most desirable relationship between neighbors is one of “correcting unnecessary things and cooperating to win mutual gains,” Lee added.
The need for cooperation between South Korea and Japan has grown larger in the wake of US protectionism, as the two countries “face international turmoil due to trade issues and security matters, while holding similar ideological positions,” Lee also said.
Lee extended a verbal invitation to Ishiba to come to South Korea and resume their shuttle diplomacy, referring to a mode of diplomacy in which leaders of the two countries take turns traveling to their counterpart’s country frequently.
“Shuttle diplomacy between the two leaders has just begun,” Lee told a press conference after their summit, signaling that the relationship between South Korea and Tokyo has quickly gotten back on track after the political crisis posed by former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s imposition of martial law in December.
The meeting was followed by a dinner hosted by Ishiba that featured Japanese-style curry, Korean-style braised chicken, known as jjimdak, Korean-style grilled eel and Japanese peaches, accompanied by traditional Korean soju and local Japanese beer and wine. Wi said Sunday that signs of Korea-Japan harmony were observed during the dinner.
On the sidelines, Lee’s wife Kim Hea Kyung spent more than an hour on Saturday with her counterpart, Yoshiko Ishiba, taking part in workshops together to learn about Korean and Japanese crafts, according to the presidential office. The two later joined the dinner hosted by Prime Minister Ishiba.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last visited South Korea in September 2024 to meet then-President Yoon, who touted his frequent meetings with Japanese counterparts as a signal of easing tension and improving ties with Japan.
Lee officially met Ishiba for the first time in June on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Canada. Saturday’s meeting was the second between Lee and Ishiba.
Lee, formerly the chief of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea, has been an outspoken critic of Japan’s failure to adequately apologize for past historical grievances and its decision to release treated wastewater off the eastern coast of Japan from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
However, in his Liberation Day speech on Aug. 15, Lee asked his Japanese counterpart to meet with him frequently for frank dialogue.
The South Korean president also proposed “forward-looking, mutually beneficial cooperation” based on trust, adding that one of the ways to restore bilateral trust is for Japan to “squarely face up to painful history.”
Meanwhile, Lee’s interview with the Yomiuri Shimbun released Thursday indicated that Seoul has no intention of reneging on previous accords struck in 2014 with Japan regarding historical issues such as wartime sex slavery and forced labor.
consnow@heraldcorp.com
