Agreement Turns into Disagreement

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe grabbed a hand of South Korean President Moon Jae-in without a smile. In a meeting held in the backdrop of opening ceremony of Pyeongchang Olympic, Abe insisted on irreversibility of Japan-South Korea agreement to finally settle the dispute over comfort woman, only for being rejected by Moon with argument that the issue would not be finalized in a government-to-government manner. Unfortunately enough, Abe’s reluctant visit to South Korea turned the agreement into a disagreement.

As soon as opening press opportunity ended, Abe brought comfort woman issue onto the table. “It is international and comprehensive principle that a promise between countries must be implemented even after administration would be changed,” Abe gave Moon a lecture. As he had decided to participate in the opening ceremony of Pyeongchang Olympic to draw positive cooperation from South Korea for Tokyo Olympic two years later, Abe had at least to reconfirm the viability of the comfort woman agreement.

Moon was definitely sober behind his big smile standing aside Abe. “The conclusion that it cannot be settled by the agreement is based on the fact that the comfort grandmothers did not accept it,” said Moon. Moon argued that both governments had to continue their efforts to heal the wounded heart of the victims to finally settle the comfort woman issue. He stood still against Japan’s attitude that it would not change the agreement even “one millimeter.”

Abe administration drew a compromise from ailing Park Geun-hye administration in 2015, which was to settle the dispute over comfort woman with ¥1 million of financial support. But the agreement was not upgraded to nation-to-nation level. In other words, it had not been ratified yet. Having received a report from his task force, Moon announced new standpoint that the agreement would not make a true resolution. As a lawyer, Moon regards the issue not as a matter of deal between governments, but of human rights.

In that negative circumstance, it was obvious that both leaders would not reach a common notion on North Korean issue. While Abe insisted on that they must not be blinded by smile diplomacy of Kim Jong-un regime and requested maintenance of hard pressure policy of trilateral framework including United States, Moon argued that it was baseless fear for Abe to see the dialogue between the North and South as ignorance of denuclearization of Korean Peninsula or destruction of concerted international efforts. After all, Abe visited Pyeongchang to show his incapability to settle international disputes.