Domestic polarization and political self-interest that dominate decision-making in Japan and South Korea render the current round of tensions between the two nations qualitatively different from previous incidents.
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The Chinese-Russian joint air patrol and Russian incursion into the sovereign air space of a disputed island barely deflected Japan and South Korea from a cycle of tit-for-tat actions and retaliations over historical issues that, if allowed to continue, will damage the foundations of the U.S.-led security architecture that has kept peace and enabled prosperity in Asia for over five decades.
The Moon Jae-in administration came into power pledging to follow a two-track strategy toward Japan that would separate historical grievances from future-oriented cooperation. But the Moon administration’s unwinding of the 2015 comfort woman agreement and the South Korean Supreme Court decision—albeit by a separate and independent judiciary—in favor of compensation for Korean forced labor under Japanese firms during wartime has put Moon into a political box.
Protesters attend a rally on July 24, 2019, in Seoul to call for compensation and an apology from Japan's government for wartime sex slaves.The failure of Moon’s two-track policy toward Japan has generated doubts among many in Japan who suspect that Moon’s aim is to revise the 1965 Japan-South Korea normalization treaty. Those doubts have led Japan to pursue countermeasures.
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