Biden Is Building on Shaky Foundations in East Asia
Biden is chasing a short-term win that seems very likely to backfire in just a few years.
The Bloomberg editorial on Biden’s Camp David summit with South Korea and Japan inadvertently calls attention to one of the reasons why any big agreement reached on Friday will be fragile and at risk of falling apart:
Japan and South Korea are heavily touting the symbolism of their first-ever joint summit with the US, which takes place Friday at Camp David. Both nations deserve credit for setting aside lingering tensions over Japan’s wartime abuses in Korea. The task for the countries’ leaders now is to solidify their alliance before sentiment shifts again [bold mine-DL].
The important thing to note here is that sentiment didn’t shift in the first place, as most South Koreans objected to Yoon’s action that led to improved ties with Japan. According to a Gallup poll, almost 60% opposed it because there was no compensation coming from Japanese companies for their use of forced Korean labor and there was no apology included. Yoon proposed instead that the funds come from South Korean businesses to compensate the victims and their families. Unsurprisingly, the Japanese government was pleased to accept an arrangement where they had to do and admit nothing while South Korean firms paid the bill for Japanese companies’ wrongdoing. Washington has heaped praise on Yoon’s unilateral move because it suits the U.S. if South Korea and Japan cooperate more closely, but this rapprochement is built on the shakiest foundations. For all the talk of how the summit is a “pivotal opportunity,” much of the coverage in the U.S. seems to be oblivious to how little support there is in South Korea for what is happening.
The move is not only broadly unpopular with the South Korean public, but it has been met with intense scorn from Yoon’s political opponents. South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party blasted the plan from the moment it was made. The opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was scathing in his comments at the time: “Yesterday’s Korea-Japan summit was the most embarrassing and disastrous in South Korea’s diplomatic history.” It stands to reason that a policy this polarizing and unpopular is unlikely to outlive the administration that created it.