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Analysts: U.S. could do more for SKorea, Japan relations

By Elizabeth Shim
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, flanked by by Vice President Joseph Biden (L) and House Speaker John Boehner (R), speaks to a joint session of the United State Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol on April 29, 2015 in Washington, DC. Japan has strengthened political and economic ties with the United States but Tokyo and Seoul have faced challenges regarding historical and territorial issues. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, flanked by by Vice President Joseph Biden (L) and House Speaker John Boehner (R), speaks to a joint session of the United State Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol on April 29, 2015 in Washington, DC. Japan has strengthened political and economic ties with the United States but Tokyo and Seoul have faced challenges regarding historical and territorial issues. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- The United States could take a more active approach toward facilitating South Korea-Japan relations as Seoul and Tokyo struggle with disagreements over history and territory, a panel of analysts said on Tuesday.

In a panel co-hosted by the Global Peace Foundation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Michael Auslin of the American Enterprise Institute said the South Korea-Japan relationship is in a "perilous state."

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"We're talking about things that shouldn't even be remarked upon," Auslin said, referring to a last-minute deal between the two neighbors that allowed Japan to register Meiji-era industrial buildings as UNESCO World Heritage sites on Sunday.

South Korea had initially opposed Japan's U.N. bid because the sites used Korean forced laborers who were recruited into Japan's wartime industry.

Seoul later came around when Tokyo agreed to recognize the employment of Korean forced laborers.

Relations between the two of the closest U.S. allies, however, were not always so frayed with bitter accusations, according to Sheila Smith, a senor fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Smith said South Korean President Kim Dae-jung achieved a breakthrough beginning in 1998 when he spoke in Japan and delivered a message of reconciliation – referring to the 20th century as a "blip on the screen" of a longstanding relationship between the Japanese archipelago and the Korean peninsula that dates back to antiquity.

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"There's not been a Korean leader since then who came close to that," said Smith.

Analysts agree a 2012 visit to the disputed islets of Dokdo, known as Takeshima in Japan, by then-President Lee Myung-bak has been responsible for a downturn in South Korea-Japan relations.

Smith said a change took hold among Japanese regarding South Korea after the presidential visit, and that public opinion has not recovered since Park Geun-hye assumed the presidency in 2013.

While North Korea remains the broader regional crisis that Seoul, Tokyo and Washington are quick to address through close coordination, Smith said South Korean political gestures have led to a feeling of "betrayal" in Japan, despite the brisk business and cultural exchanges that are ongoing between the two industrialized democracies.

"It's tapping into a broader anxiety in Japan about geostrategic change and isolation," Smith said.

"There's this kind of hurt attached to it."

The analysts agreed the U.S. should not mediate the difficult issues from history, but rather make efforts to bring about better relations between the allies by giving the conversation a higher public profile at home.

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