Experts call on leaders to exert restraint for broader regional cooperation


As wealth and power gravitate toward the Asia-Pacific, South Korea, China and Japan are entrapped in historical and territorial spats, threatening to hinder the cooperation necessary to maintain the region’s dynamism.

Some experts argue that these developments may be temporary ahead of leadership transitions scheduled later this year in all three nations, underscoring the need for policymakers and government leaders to remain cool-headed.

“(Ahead of leadership changes) all three nations appear to be affected by public opinion. Citizens and politicians tend to take historical and territorial issues emotionally, making this vicious circle of spats uncontrollable,” said Nam Chang-hee, political science professor at Inha University.

“Leaders and government officials should not be emotional in their decision-making process and maintain composure in order to manage the situation in a way that best serves their national interests in the long-term.”

The rekindled spat over Dokdo is now escalating into a diplomatic standoff. Japan is reportedly considering suspending the shuttle summit diplomacy and the plan to expand the bilateral currency swap scheme.

Lee visited Korea’s easternmost islets five days before the Aug. 15 Liberation Day, infuriating Tokyo. He also called for Japan’s Emperor Akihito to apologize for his country’s wartime atrocities and characterized its colonial sexual enslavement as a broader human rights issue beyond the bilateral relationship.

Japan is considering bringing the Dokdo case to the International Court of Justice, a move Seoul dismisses as Tokyo’s strategy to make it an international dispute.

The Sino-Japan dispute over the islands in the East China Sea ― called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese ― has further soured the bilateral ties. It resurfaced on Wednesday as Chinese activists reached the islands by ship, claiming them as their territory.

Japanese authorities apprehended them immediately. Reiterating its claim to the islands, Beijing summoned the Japanese ambassador and demanded that Tokyo promptly release them.

Diplomatic ties between South Korea and China have also been frayed over the repatriation of North Korean defectors and a South Korean human rights activist who claims to have been mistreated by Chinese authorities while in their custody on charges of endangering national security.

The deteriorating bilateral ties appear to weaken the view that deepening economic interdependence would lead rational state actors toward cooperation, as liberalists claim, rather than conflict.

Worsening ties among the three nations could negatively influence their efforts to clinch a trilateral free trade agreement, which they have touted as a vital framework for co-prosperity, observers said.

Their combined population amounts to some 1.5 billion, less than a fifth of the world’s total. Their gross domestic product amounts to $12 trillion, some 20 percent of the world’s total.

Following the sparring over Dokdo, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Tokyo is considering whether to expand the bilateral currency swap scheme.

During their summit talks last October, President Lee and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda agreed to expand the scale of the currency swap program from $13 billion to $70 billion.

Amid escalating tension between the neighbors, two firms from each country also delayed their plan to roll out a new product designed for Japanese tourists traveling here.

“Such disputes and worsening public sentiment can lead to some loss of traction amid Asia rising as the center of global economic prosperity. Should there be continuing anti-Korea and anti-Japan protests and rallies, bilateral trade and investment could shrink,” said Kim Tae-hyun, international politics professor at Chung-Ang University.

“The market is after all influenced by politics. It is not that the market operates only by itself.”

With all three nations preparing for new leadership, observers said that the incumbents should take more caution not to seriously damage bilateral ties due to territorial and historical issues over which a compromise is virtually impossible.

“For politicians, when votes are at stake, it is very difficult to make concessions or a compromise. But we need to be cautious not to bring the situation to an extreme,” said Chun In-young, professor emeritus at Seoul National University.

“As former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said, we need each other and we use each other.”

Despite such advice, Japan is expected to maintain a tough stance over a series of disputes including one over the Kuril Islands with Russia amid its efforts to restore national pride sapped by its prolonged economic slump and the rise of neighboring states, namely China, analysts said.

“Discontent among the Japanese has been caused not only by its economic slump, but also by the social structural change in the country. Tokyo appears to settle such problems through its outside conflict and in this process, nationalistic sentiment has been fanned,” said Lee Ki-wan, international relations professor at Changwon National University.

Lee added that the recent moves by Japan to become a “normal state” with a full-fledged military are also part of its efforts to shore up its global standing.

The escalating conflict particularly between South Korea and Japan appears to be baffling Washington, which has wanted to improve the bilateral relationship amid its efforts to deepen its strategic engagement in the economically vibrant region.

Washington has so far remained low-key, calling for restraint on both sides in resolving the bilateral conflict.

“The U.S. has long sought to strengthen the triangular security cooperation with South Korea and Japan and achieve its strategic goal (to maintain preeminence) in the Asia Pacific,” said Nam of Inha University.

“Washington has apparently been disappointed by a failure for Seoul and Tokyo to sign a military information-sharing deal. It may feel uneasy about the difficulty in the three-way security cooperation.”

After all, the current situation calls for America’s sophisticated diplomacy, experts said.

Kim Tae-hyun of Chung-Ang University floated the idea of introducing a comprehensive moratorium on a series of territorial disputes in the region until the concerned countries are capable enough to wisely settle them. For this, Washington needs to exert its diplomatic clout, he said.

Looking at a series of territorial claims, Kim noted that the current diplomatic rows are reminiscent of what happened during the creation of Europe’s modern state system focusing on territorial sovereignty in the 17th century.

Now regarded as outmoded amid the world’s pursuit of integration and multilateral cooperation, the state system was created after the Treaty of Westphalia was signed in 1648 to end the Thirty Years’ War involving most of the European countries. The war was largely a religious one deriving from the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)