South Korea’s olive branch to Japan

The president’s plan to compensate wartime Korean victims starts with a recognition that any redress by Japan must be voluntary.

The Monitor's View

On Monday, the president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, offered a plan to end a cycle of revenge between his country and Japan. Ties between the two neighbors have declined in recent years over how to resolve issues left over from Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula. At the heart of Mr. Yoon’s plan is an intriguing idea: that any apology or reparations from Japan must be voluntary.

As a former prosecutor, Mr. Yoon probably knows an apology is a dish best served with warm sincerity. His plan indirectly acknowledges that Japan did offer massive compensation to South Korea in 1965 for its past rule and to formalize postwar relations. It also seems to recognize the broad apologies offered by the Japanese emperor and government in the 1990s.

What’s lingered since then has been political demands within South Korea for direct Japanese apologies and compensation to the remaining Koreans who labored in colonial-era war factories or military brothels. Mr. Yoon’s plan leaves a door open for that still to happen. But he indicated in a March 1 speech that Japan deserves recognition for its postwar progress.

“Japan has transformed from a militarist aggressor of the past into a partner that shares the same universal values with us,” he said. The two nations, both democracies, also face rising military threats from North Korea and China and a need to form a better three-way alliance with the United States.

One of the plan’s concrete steps calls for Korean companies that benefited from Japan’s postwar compensation to make “voluntary donations” to a public foundation that will assist 15 wartime victims. In return, officials in Tokyo suggest Japanese companies might contribute to a foundation that would pay for “future-oriented” activities aimed at Korean youth. Japan’s officials also hint they may reassert the “deep remorse and heartfelt apology” given to South Koreans more than a quarter century ago.

In recent decades, South Korean politics has thrived off anti-Japanese sentiments. Mr. Yoon, who came to power last May, brought in a different sensibility. Already his plan has seen results. Since the plan was unveiled, the two governments have begun to back off trade threats made in the recent past. Japan might invite Mr. Yoon for a visit to Tokyo and to the G-7 summit in Hiroshima in May.

The two governments have worked closely for months to reach this moment. Mr. Yoon’s plan may fail in the heat of Korean politics. But at the least, he’s shown that real reconciliation relies on voluntary action, often unilaterally and from the heart. “For the sake of our people, the vicious circle should be broken,” said South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin. “I hope this will become a historic window of opportunity for us to go beyond antagonism and conflict.”