Videos | Diplomacy | Politics | East Asia
Takakchi and Lee have the two U.S. allies on track to finally put their differences aside.
In 2018, Japan and South Korea nearly came to blows. Japan accused a South Korean naval vessel of locking its fire-control radar onto a Japanese maritime patrol aircraft. A radar lock is the final step before preparing to fire weapons.
The incident was just a symptom of deeper problems in Japan-South Korea relations, starting with toxic historical disputes that go back over 100 years. But the near-miss in 2018 had a more immediate cause: an unfortunate political mismatch. Liberal leaders in South Korea tend to dislike Japan; conservative leaders in Japan usually take a hard line on historical issues. That was exactly the ill-fated political combination at play in 2018.
Today, we once again have a staunch conservative in power in Japan and a liberal president in South Korea. But instead of trade embargos and radar locks, we’re seeing drum duets and sushi dinners. Japan’s Takaichi Sanae and South Korea’s Lee Jae-myung have been all smiles during their two summits thus far.
