S. Korea, Japan, China Plan Forum on History Dispute

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200505/kt2005050817213111950.htm

S. Korea, Japan, China Plan Forum on History Dispute
By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter
Seoul, Beijing and
Tokyo tentatively agreed over the weekend to establish a three-way history
review committee aimed at settling an emotional row over Japan’s unrepentant
attitude towards its wartime atrocities.
The proposal came during a meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon and counterparts from Japan and China on the sidelines of an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) forum in Kyoto, Japan on Saturday, according to a South Korean official.
``China suggested a joint history study and the three ministers agreed
to have working-level officials review the idea,’’ Park Joon-woo, director of
the Foreign Ministry’s Asia-Pacific Bureau, said following the meeting.

The foreign ministers also discussed the North Korean nuclear issue and
a joint study on the economic effects of creating a trilateral free-trade zone.
Experts said forming the history committee would be a small step toward
defusing long-standing bitterness towards Japan and help clear the way for
greater regional cooperation.

But an array of complicated issues will
need to be overcome, including Japanese claims over South Korea’s Dokdo islets
in the East Sea, a Beijing-Tokyo dispute over rights to an offshore gas field
and repeated visits by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to a
controversial war shrine.

Tokyo’s approval in March of school textbooks
that China and South Korea believe gloss over its imperial wrongdoings triggered
the latest flare-up in regional relations. It is also unclear whether
the three-way history committee would work in tandem or separate from bilateral
history committees between Japan and its two neighbors. Japanese Foreign
Minister Nobutaka Machimura and his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing agreed to
establish a bilateral review in an earlier meeting at the ASEM ministerial
session. South Korea and Japan have already set up a joint committee,
which delivered its first report on Thursday.

Seoul’s foreign affairs
chief said progress is being made in resolving the historical disagreements
following a meeting with Machimura late last week. ``Minister Ban said
the meeting was fruitful in that we realized the differences and agreements that
exist regarding the history study,’’ a ministry official said. ``We are still
discussing the need for developing a second study.’’ However, other
South Korean officials expressed disappointment, saying that the study failed to
address the problems and only highlighted vast differences in the two countries’
historical outlooks.

President Roh Moo-hyun has also waded into the row,
calling on Japan to show its remorse for colonial-period crimes with actions
rather than words. ``What the South Korean government and people want is
not new apologies from Japan, but concrete reparations suitable to the apologies
already made,’’ he told a group of visiting Japanese politicians Friday.

In a speech in Jakarta, Indonesia last month, the Japanese prime
minister expressed ``deep remorse’’ for the atrocities committed by Japan before
and during World War II. However, anti-Japan sentiments remain strong in
both South Korea and China. Japan ruled over the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945 and parts of China from 1931-1945.

In theory this sounds great. And if you look
at where it's coming from (the respective foreign ministers) then you start to
understand why it looks so good. it is the job of foreign ministers to make
things sound good and to smooth over relations between neighbors.

That being said though, i wonder how long this will hold up against the next political spin coming out of the internal politics of the above mentioned parties. Serious, just one little "spat" and all this co-operation will be forgotten.