杜朝平
By Du Chaoping
7月18日至20日，韩国外交部长官朴振访问日本。这是自2017年12月以来韩国外长首次访日。此前由于韩国裁决日企赔偿强征劳工、日本以出口管制报复，韩日关系跌至冰点。朴振日本之行被韩国媒体形容为“破冰之旅”，日本媒体也称韩国展现出改善双边关系的积极意向。不过，冰冻三尺非一日之寒，一次访问很难解决双方固有矛盾，短期内两国关系恐难走出低谷。
ROK's Foreign Minister Park Jin visited Japan from July 18 to 20. This is the first visit by a ROK foreign minister to Japan since December 2017. Relations between the ROK and Japan fell to a freezing point after the former ruled that Japanese companies should compensate for forced labor and Japan retaliated with export controls. Park Jin's trip to Japan was described by the ROK media as an "ice-breaking trip", and the Japanese media also said that Seoul showed a positive intention to improve bilateral relations. However, Rome wasn't built in a day. It is difficult to resolve the inherent contradictions between the two sides in just one visit, and the relationship between the two countries may not be able to get out of the trough in the short term.
改善关系意愿强烈
Strong willingness to improve bilateral relations
近期，上任不久的韩国总统尹锡悦，一改前任对朝外交政策，宣称如发现朝鲜挑衅，将在美国支持下进行反击。同时，韩国整体外交政策转向全面加强韩美战略同盟。为满足美国对加强美日韩三边安全合作的要求，修复韩日关系被尹锡悦列为重要施政内容。为此，尹锡悦称要以“面向未来”的方式处理韩日双边关系。此次朴振访日是韩国缓和韩日关系的最新努力，展现出韩国改善韩日关系的强烈意愿。
Recently, ROK President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office recently, changed his predecessor's foreign policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and declared that if the DPRK's provocation was detected, he would fight back with the support of the US. At the same time, Seoul's overall foreign policy has turned to comprehensively strengthening the ROK-US strategic alliance. Repairing the relationship with Japan has been listed as an important policy content by Yoon Suk-yeol to meet the requirements of the US to strengthen the trilateral security cooperation among the US, Japan and the ROK. To this end, Yoon said that the bilateral relations between the ROK and Japan should be handled in a "future-oriented" way. Park Jin's visit to Japan this time is Seoul's latest effort to ease relations with Tokyo and it showed Seoul's strong willingness to improve ROK-Japan relations.
为期3天的行程安排紧凑。朴振先与日本外务大臣林芳正举行会谈，接着拜会日本首相岸田文雄，转达尹锡悦总统对改善韩日关系的意愿。随后，朴振吊唁安倍晋三，并同自民党干事长茂木敏充、前首相菅义伟等人会面。
The three-day visit is packed. Park Jin held talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, and then called on Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to convey President Yoon Suk-yeol's wishes to improve bilateral relations. Afterward, Park offered his condolences to Shinzo Abe, and met with Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, and former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
其中，朴振与林芳正的会晤最受关注。会晤在东京饭仓公馆举行，时长约两个半小时，两人就共同应对朝鲜核问题、劳工索赔及改善双边关系、深化日美韩三方合作等议题交换意见。双方同意在应对朝鲜核武器和导弹问题上展开更为紧密的合作，包括磋商恢复《韩日军事情报保护协定》。
Among them, the meeting with Yoshimasa Hayashi received the most attention. During the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, the two exchanged views on issues such as jointly dealing with the DPRK nuclear issue, labor claims, bilateral relations improvement, and the deepening of Japan-US-ROK cooperation. The two sides agreed to work more closely on dealing with DPRK's nuclear weapons and missiles, including negotiating the resumption of the General Security of Military Information Agreement.
积怨颇深心结难解
Deep-seated problem difficult to resolve
外媒分析认为，相比文在寅与安倍晋三执政时期，尹锡悦与岸田文雄将使韩日关系缓和前景变得更为现实。近期，韩日关系逐渐缓和，双方政治经济交流也在恢复。日本媒体声称，韩日两国未来探索改善关系的外交互动或将更加频繁。
Foreign media believes that compared with Moon Jae-in and Shinzo Abe, Yoon Suk-yeol and Kishida Fumio will make the prospect of easing relations more realistic. Recently, the relationship between the two countries has gradually eased, and political and economic exchanges between the two sides are also recovering. Japanese media claimed that diplomatic interactions between the ROK and Japan to explore improvement in relations may become more frequent in the future.
分析人士指出，韩国外长的此次访问固然能给两国冰冷关系提升一点温度，包括可能给解决历史遗留问题注入动力。不过，由于历史症结难解、现实矛盾干扰，加上国民情绪对立等因素，韩日关系很难在短期内明显改善。
Analysts pointed out that the visit of the ROK’s foreign minister can certainly raise a little temperature in the cold relationship between the two countries, including possibly injecting impetus into resolving issues left over from history. However, due to the intractable historical crux, the interference of real contradictions, and the antagonism of national sentiments, it is difficult to improve ROK-Japan relations significantly in the short term.
就拿双边关系中关注度最高的二战强征劳工索赔问题来说，索赔争端已纠缠两国多年，迄今无解。这场争端主要围绕韩国法院2018年的一项裁决。裁决要求新日本制铁和三菱重工对被强征的韩国劳工进行赔偿，但两家日本公司拒绝遵守。前劳工及其支持者随后要求强制出售两家公司的在韩资产。
The World War II forced labor claims issue, for example, has received the most attention in bilateral relations. The claims dispute has been entangled between the two countries for many years, and there is no solution so far. The dispute is around a 2018 ruling by a ROK court, which required Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate ROK workers for forced labor. However, the two Japanese companies refused to comply. The former laborers and their supporters then demanded a forced sale of the two companies' assets in the ROK.
朴振与林芳正同意就解决该问题合作，但并未提出具体方案。会晤中，朴振称将寻求在两家公司在韩资产被出售前解决这场争端；林芳正则表示双方需要在1965年关系正常化的基础上建立建设性关系。此前，日方坚称，所有赔偿问题在两国关系正常化时均已解决。就在韩日外交官员磋商这一问题之际，韩国纽西斯通讯社报道，三菱重工拒绝承认曾强征韩国劳工，引发韩国民众强烈不满。此外，“慰安妇”问题和日本修宪等问题同样牵动着韩国民众的敏感神经，这些都预示着韩日关系改善之路并不平坦。
Park Jin and Yoshimasa Hayashi agreed to work on solving the problem but did not propose a specific plan. During the meeting, Park Jin said he would seek to resolve the dispute before the two companies assets in the ROK were sold while Yoshimasa Hayashi said the two sides needed to build a constructive relationship based on the normalization of relations in 1965. Previously, the Japanese side insisted that all compensation issues were resolved when relations between the two countries were normalized. As the ROK and Japanese diplomats were discussing this issue, the ROK's Newsis reported that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries refused to admit that it had forced the ROK’s laborers, causing strong dissatisfaction among the people in the ROK. In addition, issues such as "comfort women" and Japan's constitutional revision also affect the sensitive nerves of the ROK people. All these indicate that the road to improvement in ROK-Japan relations will not be smooth.
