Martial Law Affects Bilateral Relations

President of Republic of Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, laid a martial law at night of December 3rd, only to reverse it six hours later, facing united opposition from the Parliament. The opposition party began to take action to impeach Yoon. The confusion in ROK politics, brought by surprising decision of Yoon, may cause slowdown of currently improving bilateral relations between Japan and ROK, on which Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba relied as one of the few hopes to stabilize his administration.

Martial law was imposed with grave concern of Yoon on persistent protests of opposition parties against administration, including scandal of Yoon’s wife about her extravagance. The idea of laying martial law was reportedly proposed by Minister of National Defense, Kim Yong-hyun. Kim announced his resignation after martial law was lifted.

 

Japanese Defense Minister, Gen Nakatani, announced that he would cancel his trip to ROK later this month. Nakatani hoped to discuss the plan for security cooperation including exchange of both personnel. Former prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, also cancelled his trip to ROK later this month, as the leader of multi-partisan delegation by Diet members.

 

Tokyo has been coordinating enhancement of security relationship with ROK, when closer bilateral relationship is indispensable for dealing with trilateral alliance with the United States. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump demands Japan and ROK further financial responsibility for U.S. security assistance, or North Korea seeks closer ties with Russia.

 

Ishiba has been building close personal relationship with Yoon, having two leaders meeting in Vientiane, Laos, in October and Lima, Peru, in November. The relationship was based on the effort of Ishiba’s predecessor, Fumio Kishida, and Yoon. Yoon contributed to improve bilateral relationship through his decision for settling the issue of Japan’s forced labor of Korean people, or immediate support for Tokyo on the decision of discharging processed water into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

 

Ishiba and Yoon have agreed on continuing shuttle diplomacy, which has been resumed by Kishida and Yoon last year after twelve-year interruption. Ishiba has been seeking to visit Seoul in January, for commemoration of sixtieth anniversary from normalization of relations of Japan and ROK. The plan can be cancelled, dependent on the process of impeachment of Yoon in ROK Parliament.

 

“I closely watch what is going on with special concern,” told Ishiba in the discussion of the House of Councillors, “concerning our bilateral relationship which is important for dealing with various international issues as close partners.” The result of struggle over impeachment against Yoon may affect security policy of Japan, which is highly related with ROK and the U.S.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amendment of Local Autonomy Law

The House of Representatives started discussion on revision of the Local Autonomy Law, which would vest the national government a power to instruct local government in an emergency. It may change the relationship between the national and local government, which has been recognized as equal. The opposition parties oppose the amendment, arguing that it would give the national government an excessive power.   With the Meiji Restoration, the national government abolished the feudal system, introducing modern governance. However, its autonomy was not sufficient. The governor of each prefecture was appointed by the national government. The local governments subordinated to the national government. It was as late as 2000 when  the Comprehensive Decentralization Law  was enacted and the relationship between the national and local government was defined as equal.   The national government found inconvenience in the relationship between the national and local government, when ...
Read more

Request for Final Nuclear Disposal Site

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requested Genkai Town, Saga, to accept “literature survey” for building a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. Genkai is going to answer within this month. If it accepts, it will be the third place to accept that survey, following two places in Hokkaido. Main reason to accept the survey is supposed to be subsidy from the national government.   Japan has no final disposal site. Among all 54 reactors in 17 nuclear power generation plant, 12 reactors of 6 plants are operating. The rest of them are not in operation, some of which are determined to be decommissioned. Used nuclear fuels are stocked in each plant, 　 or have sent to a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori. There are two plans to stock nuclear wastes in the intermediate facility for disposal, one is already built and another is still in negotiation.   Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Act in 2000 determines to bury nuclear waste in the underground. Literature survey, ...
Read more

Not A Royal Wedding

The bride called her husband an indispensable existence and their marriage was necessary choice to protect their mind. The groom insisted on his life as only once and his right to be with his loved one. Her father wanted his daughter’s marriage to be celebrated by the people. The people were not sure whether the family was happy as a whole. Is this the traditional Japanese social system that makes no one happy? Mako Komuro, as known as Princess Mako during her life in one of the royal family Akishino, held on Tuesday a press conference with her husband Kei Komuro, right after submitting marriage report to local government. It was something different from ordinary Q&A session, because Mako was afraid of her mental uneasiness brought by some questions not based on truth. So, the event was actually one-sided speech to the reporters. Mako emphasized that the Kei’s decision of studying abroad five years ago had not been his original idea, but a result of her request to establish an over...
Read more