Japanese PM Kishida to visit S. Korea on May 7-8

May 03, 2023, 08:25 am

		0
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hold a joint news conference at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo on March 16, 2023./ Source: Yonhap

AsiaToday reporter Lee Wook-jae

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit South Korea on May 7-8. As a result, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is expected to have a period of breathless diplomacy, including the Korea-Japan summit on Sunday and a trilateral summit with the United States and Japan at the G7 gathering in Japan later this month.

The presidential office on Tuesday announced the Japanese prime minister’s Seoul visit. Kishida is the first Japanese leader to pay a bilateral visit to Seoul in 12 years, indicating that ‘shuttle diplomacy’ between the leaders of the two countries will resume in earnest. Kishida will be joined by his wife Yuko.

Initially, diplomatic sources predicted that Kishida would visit Seoul around this summer after the G7 gathering scheduled to be held in Hiroshima on May 19-21. However, his visit to South Korea has been earlier than expected.

Analysts say this is the result of Japan’s acceptance of the U.S. demand for close ties between South Korea and Japan. In fact, U.S. President Joe Biden expressed strong support for Yoon’s efforts to improve Korea-Japan relations during his visit to the U.S. This can be seen as Biden’s intention calling Japan to actively respond to Yoon’s decision.

Some analysts say Kishida rushed to visit Korea to meet Yoon and coordinate joint issues in advance before the Korea-U.S.-Japan summit, which is scheduled to be held at the G7 gathering.

As Kishida has confirmed his visit to Korea, Japan’s “positive response” seems to be accelerating. Kishida’s visit to Korea and the South Korea-U.S. economic security dialogue were agreed upon by the two countries in the wake of Yoon’s visit to Japan in March. The Japanese government put South Korea back on export whitelist last month.

At the Seoul-Tokyo summit, the two countries’ economic and security cooperation plan to stabilize the semiconductor supply chain is expected to be a major agenda. In addition, the two leaders are expected to condemn North Korea’s continued armed provocations. It is predicted that the two countries will strengthen their willingness to continue future-oriented relations.

Once the Seoul-Tokyo summit ends on May 7-8, Yoon plans to head to Japan in about two weeks to attend the Korea-U.S.-Japan summit. South Korea was invited to attend the G7 summit as an observer.

#Kishida #Seoul #visit