SEOUL (Reuters) – The foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan will hold talks in the South Korean capital on Monday as key U.S. allies seek to highlight improved ties and shared security concerns amid Seoul’s worst political crisis in decades.
The meeting between South Korea’s Cho Tae-yul and Japan’s Takeshi Iwaya is the first of its kind between the countries since President Yoon Suk Yeol briefly imposed a state of emergency last month, a move that stunned South Koreans.
Yoon has been holed up in his hillside mansion in Seoul since parliament voted to impeach and suspend him last month under a state of emergency decree on Dec. 3, with investigators vowing to arrest him after a failed attempt earlier this month.
Iwaya is also scheduled to meet with South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok, the Japanese government said.
As US President-elect Donald Trump’s administration begins on January 20, none of the original leaders who established the trilateral security cooperation pact between the countries in 2023 – US President Joe Biden, Yoon and former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida – will remain in power.
Under Yoon and Kishida, relations between Seoul and Tokyo improved sharply after falling to their lowest level in decades amid bitter diplomatic and trade disputes over Japan’s 1910-45 occupation of the Korean peninsula.
Yoon has made mending ties with Tokyo and improving security cooperation, including with Washington, a diplomatic priority to tackle North Korea’s military threats.
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a visit to South Korea, expressed confidence in Seoul’s democratic process, although he said Washington had expressed “serious concerns” about some of the actions Yoon took during his state of emergency declaration.
Despite polls showing a majority of South Koreans disapprove of Yoon’s declaration of martial law and support his impeachment, his ruling People’s Power Party (PPP) is enjoying a surge in support.
Support for the PPP stood at 40.8% in the latest Realmeter poll released on Monday, while support for the main opposition Democratic Party stood at 42.2%, within the margin of error and down from last week’s 10.8% difference, it said. in the survey.
