South Korea and Japan edge toward a partnership

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters): Near, but yet so far, was for years an apt description of relations between neighboring Japan and Korea, their ties frosty due to bitter memories of the past.

But a year after Korean President Kim Dae-jung's historic state visit to Japan, things are changing.

"There's a real sense of partnership developing, whereas before there was a feeling of rivalry, " said Masao Okonogi, a professor of international relations at Tokyo's Keio University.

"Things are better than they've been for years."

South Koreans have long harbored deep resentment towards Japan for its occupation of the Korean peninsula in 1910 to 1945, during which Korean culture was suppressed and the use of Japanese language and names enforced.

Kim's October 1998 visit was pivotal, giving both countries a chance to officially put the painful past behind them.

Japan issued a written apology for its brutal colonial rule, while Kim forgave Japan and emphasized a future of partnership.

"They now anticipate the future in terms of joint values, economic interdependence and security issues," said Takashi Inoguchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo.

That future will be on the agenda when Japan's Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and other ministers meet their Korean counterparts this weekend on the South Korean island of Cheju this weekend.

Most effective in drawing the two together has been mutual need in the face of twin threats: lingering economic weakness, and North Korea, which shocked the world in 1998 by launching a multi-stage Taepodong missile that flew over Japan.

"Korea was hit hard by the Asian economic crisis and needs Japan's help to recover, while Japan has suffered badly from 'Taepodong shock'," said Okonogi. "They need Korea's help too."

This has led to cooperation that was unimaginable in the past, especially in the long-taboo area of security issues.

Tokyo and Seoul, for example, have joined with Washington to pledge close cooperation on improving relations with North Korea.

Japanese and Korean coast guard ships have also taken part in joint rescue drills several times since August, underscoring the new ties.

More striking, some 66 percent of Korean respondents to a recent poll conducted by Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper said they felt this defense relationship was "good."

"Korea's relationship with Japan has always grown stronger when it has trouble with North Korea," said Inoguchi. "What we are seeing now is something even bigger -- more like the sort of grand reconciliation that took place between France and Germany."

Economics, though, is the most solid link.

With the South Korean economy freed from a number of regulations and trade barriers after it accepted a US$58 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout package in November 1997, many feel the creation of a free-trade zone between it and Japan is only a matter of time.

The same economic crisis that forced Korea into accepting the IMF bailout has made the country realize it cannot go it alone, said Akio Watanabe, a professor at Aoyama Gakuin University.

Japan is already South Korea's second-largest trading partner. Trade volume between the two stood at $29.1 billion in 1998. "It will probably take 10 years or more, but they are moving in the direction of a free-trade zone, which will tighten other ties like defense and cultural exchange even more," Okonogi said.

As a key step in that direction, Seoul on July 1 lifted two decades of import restrictions on Japanese goods such as big- screen televisions and cars. Other similar measures are expected to follow.

Obuchi and Kim said after meeting in March that they hoped to start talks on a two-way investment treaty "as soon as possible."

Kim's visit last year also opened the door to another change -- the liberalization of cultural imports such as movies, which were officially forbidden despite being popular in underground versions.

This opening up between the two former rivals has been hailed as an important step towards increasing mutual understanding on a grassroots level, but experts said it would take time for historical ill-will to disappear.

Some 43 percent of South Korean respondents to Asahi Shimbun's poll said they disliked Japan and 94 percent said the question of the past "has yet to be settled."

"A lot of the past still lingers, and it will surface to cause problems again in the future," Okonogi said.