Seoul expects improved ties with Tokyo under new Japanese government

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea expressed hope Monday for better relations
with Japan under its incoming government, which takes office in the first power
transition in the country in half a century.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) scored a landslide victory in
Sunday's general election over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which
has governed Japan continuously since 1955 with the exception of a brief period
of less than a year in 1993-1994.
"We view the outcome of the election as reflecting the Japanese people's
aspiration for change and reform," a senior official at Seoul's presidential
office Cheong Wa Dae said. "It is expected to serve as a chance for South
Korea-Japan relations to improve."
The DPJ's victory will unseat Prime Minister Taro Aso, with the new government
likely to be formed in the middle of this month. Yukio Hatoyama, head of the DPJ,
is widely expected to replace Aso.
South Korea is pushing for the first bilateral summit between President Lee
Myung-bak and Japan's new leader on the sidelines of the G-20 financial summit to
be held in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24.
South Korean officials also expect Japan's incoming prime minister to visit South
Korea within the year as part of the so-called "shuttle diplomacy" between the
neighboring nations.
There is speculation that Japan's new center-left government will be more
flexible than the outgoing administration in dealing with historical and
territorial disputes with Korea, a legacy of Japan's 1910-50 colonization of the
peninsula.
Hatoyama openly said that if he takes power, he will not visit Tokyo's Yasukuni
Shrine, which honors convicted World War II criminals. His party has
traditionally advocated closer ties with Asian neighbors.
Seoul officials and experts, however, expect no dramatic foreign policy changes.
"The DPJ government will focus on domestic affairs until the Upper House election
next July, rather than seeking a major change in foreign policy," said Chin
Chang-soo, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, an independent think tank
in Seoul.
He pointed out that the ruling party's defeat was attributable to voters'
discontent over the economy and other domestic issues, not diplomacy.
Chin said that the DPJ, like the LDP, takes a strict stance against North Korea,
which has yet to come clean on its abduction of Japanese nationals decades ago.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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