S. Korea’s Yoon says total liberation comes after Korean unification

SEOUL (Kyodo) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday that liberation from Japanese colonial rule remains incomplete as long as South Korea and North Korea are divided.

Speaking at a Liberation Day ceremony marking 79 years since the end of Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule, Yoon stated that it is his responsibility to seek the peaceful unification of the two Koreas based on freedom and democracy.

“We must be more proactive in expanding the value of freedom to the North and induce substantive changes,” Yoon said.

“We will take a multifaceted approach to significantly improve human rights in North Korea” as part of a vision for achieving unification, he said.

With the door for dialogue wide open, political and economic cooperation can begin at any time once North Korea takes a step toward denuclearization, Yoon said, referring to an “audacious plan” he has advocated to strengthen the North’s economy and improve the lives of its people.

The remarks come at a time when the South Korean president is boosting defense cooperation with Japan and the United States amid continued nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.

Meanwhile, Yoon did not mention historical issues stemming from Japanese colonial rule nor current relations with Japan, topics that other presidents and Yoon had mentioned at the annual event in the past.

Bilateral ties reached their lowest point in decades at the time of the administration of Yoon’s predecessor, Moon Jae In, after South Korea’s Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Japanese firms to compensate South Korean victims of wartime forced labor.

Yoon has taken steps to improve ties since taking office in May 2022, including compensating the victims and their family members who won forced labor cases against Japanese companies, through a South Korean government-backed foundation.

But South Korean civic groups supporting the plaintiffs have opposed compensation via the foundation, arguing the Japanese side should directly pay damages to the plaintiffs and offer sincere apologies.