| Facing each other across the sea,South Korea and Japan have experienced friendly cooperation coupled with disputes,conflicts and even war in the course of bilateral exchanges.In 1965,with the United States helping paving the way,the two countries normalized their diplomatic relations through signing Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea.Though many issues in dispute were shelved between the two US allies,history haunted their bilateral ties long afterwards,and the deep-seated and structural problems in their relations have yet to be effectively resolved until now.In addition,the different interests in DPRK nuclear issue make it difficult for them to achieve long-term peaceful co-existence.Especially in the past 12 years(2010-2021),disputes between the ROK and Japan"escalated" several times,affecting the feelings of two peoples,hampering their economic development and damaging their national security interests to varying degrees.In response,the last three ROK governments have chronologically taken softening,hardening,concessive and again hardening position on Japan.Nationalism wave in South Korea,among other things,played an important role in this process.Therefore,it becomes essential to understand these factors and clarify their relations in order to analyze ROK foreign policy and interpret their bilateral relations.This paper studies "South Korea's changes in its position on Korea-Japan disputes and the causes behind these changes(2010-2021)".It focuses on South Korea's foreign policy and its determinants,including internal factors like surges of thought and governance foundation,as well as external factors like ROK-US alliance and Inter-Korean relation.The study spans three presidencies,from Lee Myung-bak in 2010 to Moon Jae-in in 2021.Assessing Lee Myung-bak's Dokdo landing,negotiations on 'comfort women'during Park's tenure,compensation for laborer's forced to work in Japan at wartime and Japan's key materials export restriction to South Korea during Moon's tenure,this papers analyzes the determinants of ROK's position when facing disputes with Japan and their relations.Research methods employed in this paper include literature research,case analysis and comparative analysis.What is innovative with this paper is that,by analyzing the changes of South Korea's position in Korea-Japan disputes in the past 12 years,and comparing the three presidential terms in pairs,the following conclusions are drawn.Firstly,nationalism generally leads to a tougher South Korea when faced with disputes with Japan.Secondly,the ruling part is the biggest determinant of South Korea's foreign policy.Conservative Party tends to be friendly to Japan and unfriendly to North Korea,and is more likely to compromise when facing disputes with Japan.The Progressive Party is just the opposite.However,this conclusion may change with the changes of circumstances,like when US exerts pressures or the situation on the Korean peninsula changes.And when the economy slows down,they often divert attention by being tough to the outside world.Thirdly,the ROK-US alliance makes South Korea's handling of disputes with Japan dependent on the influence of the United States,while the attitudes of the United States,be it neutrality and reconciliation,depends on its own national interests and strategic needs.Fourthly,when the Inter-Korea relations eases,Progressive Party is more likely to be in power,and they generally take tough position in disputes with Japan.When the Inter-Korea relations gets tense,Conservative party is more likely to be in power,and they tend to be concessive in disputes with Japan.The Inter-Korea relations is basically negatively correlated with South Korea's position in the Korea-Japan disputes.On the whole,the disputes between South Korea and Japan will exist for a long time due to historical issues before and after the establishment of diplomatic ties,although being "quasi-allies".South Korea's position on the disputes will depend on the combination of the factors mentioned above. |
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