South Korea says to forge positive ties with Japan under Ishiba

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea looks forward to working together with Japan’s new cabinet to forge positive ties with its closest neighbour and partner, its foreign ministry said, in comments made after the election of Shigeru Ishiba as leader of Japan’s ruling party.

President Yoon Suk Yeol has made it a diplomatic priority to improve ties with Tokyo and build trilateral security cooperation together with the United States by putting years of animosity stemming from Japan’s wartime history behind.

“South Korea and Japan are the closest neighbours and partners that share the values of freedom, human rights and the rule of law and pursue common interests in security, economy and global agenda,” the ministry said.

“This government looks forward to our two countries working together proactively for improving future oriented ties.”

Ishiba is set to become Japan’s next prime minister after winning a closely fought contest in his fifth and final attempt to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Before Yoon took office in 2022, relations between the two U.S. regional allies had sunk to their lowest level in decades amid acrimonious diplomatic and trade disputes tied to Japan’s 1910-45 colonisation of the Korean peninsula.

The outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Yoon oversaw a newfound partnership after orchestrating an about-face in ties, prodded by U.S. President Joe Biden.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency dubbed Ishiba “a dove” on the matter of Japan’s ties with South Korea, citing past comments that questioned whether Japan had done enough to redress its role in World War Two that continues to affect ties with regional neighbours.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies)