President Lee will meet Japanese leader ahead of summit with Trump

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (left) and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will meet Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo next week before flying to Washington for a summit with President Donald Trump, underscoring how Trump’s push to reset global trade is drawing the often-feuding neighbors closer.

Lee’s two-day visit to Japan Aug. 23–24 will be an opportunity to deepen personal ties with Ishiba and put bilateral relations on firmer ground. Their talks will center on strengthening trilateral cooperation with Washington, promoting “regional peace and stability,” and addressing other international issues, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said yesterday.

Their meeting will come weeks after South Korea and Japan secured trade deals with Washington that shielded their trade-dependent economies from Trump’s highest tariffs. The separate agreements negotiated their rates of reciprocal duties down to 15% from the originally proposed 25%, but only after pledging hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry said it hopes Lee’s visit will promote the “stable development” of bilateral ties as their countries work together on international challenges. It said the two governments plan to maintain close communication, including utilizing the “shuttle diplomacy” of regular leadership summits used in the past.

After meeting Ishiba, Lee will travel to Washington for an Aug. 25 summit with Trump, which his office said will focus on trade and defense cooperation.

Relations between the two U.S. allies often have been strained in recent years over grievances stemming from Japan’s brutal colonization of the Korean Peninsula before the end of World War II.

Lee and Ishiba previously met on the sidelines of the June G7 meetings in Canada, where they called for building a future-oriented relationship and agreed to cooperate closely on various issues including trade and countering North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Lee’s meeting with Ishiba is clearly intended as preparation for the tougher challenge of the summit with Trump, who has unsettled allies and partners with tariff hikes and demands to reduce reliance on the U.S. while paying more for their defense.

Lee could seek tips from Ishiba, who already has met Trump, and their governments may feel an urgent need to cooperate and respond jointly to challenges posed by Washington, said Park Won Gon, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University.

The setup also may help revive the trilateral summits initiated under former President Joe Biden, which would make more sense than dealing with Trump separately, Park said, noting South Korea and Japan share strategic interests.

“They are the only countries that have signed special measures agreements on sharing defense costs with the United States,” Park said. “Both depend on U.S. extended deterrence to cope with North Korean threats. With U.S. forces stationed both in South Korea and Japan, they are partners who need to be ready to respond to crisis situations, like one in the Taiwan Strait.”

Some 80,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea and Japan to combat possible North Korean provocations and deal with regional challenges including those posed by China.

Ties between Seoul and Tokyo were rocky during Trump’s first term, marked by a trade dispute and clashes over wartime history. Washington largely took a hands-off approach as its two allies aired their feud in public.

The standoff eased as the Biden administration pressured the countries to repair ties, aiming to strengthen their trilateral security cooperation against North Korean threats and counter China’s growing influence.

Biden’s push was supported by South Korea’s previous conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, who took significant steps to improve ties with Tokyo, including a major compromise on compensation issues related to Korean victims of Japanese wartime slavery that sparked backlash at home.

But Yoon’s presidency was cut short by his brief imposition of martial law in December, which led to his ouster and imprisonment, leaving uncertainty over Seoul-Tokyo relations under Lee, who has long accused Japan of clinging to its imperialist past and hindering cooperation.

Since taking office in June after winning the early presidential election, Lee has avoided thorny remarks about Japan, instead promoting pragmatism in foreign policy and pledging to strengthen Seoul’s alliance with Washington and trilateral cooperation with Tokyo. There also have been calls in South Korea to boost collaboration with Japan in responding to Trump’s policies. KIM TONG-HYUNG, SEOUL, MDT/AP