尹, 7 days 5 nights trip finished… Korea-Japan relations – IRA, currency exchange negotiations

President Yoon Seok-yeol’s 7-day, 5-night trip, which began on the 18th, ended on the 24th. The itinerary, which began with a visit to Queen Elizabeth II in London, ended with a lunch with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife in Ottawa, Canada.

The highlight of this trip is by far President Yoon’s keynote speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, USA, and the meeting with the leaders of the United States and Japan, held on the occasion of his presence at the United Nations General Assembly. .

This is the first time in two years and nine months that the leaders of the two countries, Korea and Japan, have met. The presidential office seems to have focused on opening relations with Japan. Through the meeting with the US president, we confirmed cooperation in the implementation of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and liquidity supply for financial stability.

However, I was troubled by the format of meeting with the leaders of Japan and the United States. Also, as he came out of an event hosted by US President Joe Biden, Han Yun’s profane language caused controversy.

尹’s first keynote speech at the UN General Assembly… The duty of ‘advanced countries’ is included

Korea’s status was changed from a developing country to a developed country by unanimous consent of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) last year. It means we can no longer stop in countries receiving aid from the United Nations. You should be able to show how you can help.

The answer that came after such consideration is in President Yoon’s speech on the 20th (New York local time). They donate $300 million (about 427 billion won) to the ‘ACT-A’ initiative, a project to develop a treatment for COVID-19 led by the World Health Organization, and share digital technology with developing countries .

Specifically, in response to President Yoon’s will to make efforts to ensure that everyone has fair access to digital data, the UN special envoy for technology tweeted, “Digital is an important agenda of the UN General Assembly. (The United Nations is ready to work with Korea).”

However, it is quite notable that North Korea was not in the speech. This is the first time that the word North Korea has appeared in the speeches of successive presidents at the United Nations General Assembly. The presidential office clarified that phrases such as “nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, and collective human rights violations” in President Yun’s speech were actually aimed at North Korea.

◆Communication between Korean and Japanese leaders – Discuss IRA and currency exchange with the United States

President Yoon met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden on the 21st.

In the case of the Korea-Japan summit, there was a fierce battle over whether to hold it until the last minute. As if considering the sensitive situation, the presidential office announced to the media that ‘the Korea-Japan summit will start now’ just after the two met.

According to South Korea’s presidential office and Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two leaders shared serious concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program and agreed to continue communication between the leaders.

A high-ranking official in the presidential office even pointed out that the issue of past history, especially the issue of compensation for forced labour, was one of the key discussions between the two leaders.

This is the first meeting between the leaders of South Korea and Japan in two years and nine months since the bilateral meeting between former President Moon Jae-in and late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Korea-China-Japan summit held in Chengdu , China in December 2019. This is the moment of the ‘normalization of Korea-Japan relations’ that the Yun Seok-yeol administration promised.

The meeting with President Biden was replaced by a short conversation.

On the afternoon of the same day, President Yoon attended the Global Fund Financial Commitment Meeting held in New York hosted by President Biden. It was not originally planned, but the meeting was rushed at the invitation of President Biden while the South Korea-US summit was scheduled until the last minute.

After taking a commemorative photo after the event, President Yoon greeted President Biden and had a conversation with Foreign Minister Park Jin-gu. It was a meeting for 48 seconds.

Kim Seong-han, head of the National Security Bureau, said that President Yoon and President Biden met three times during this visit, and in particular, during a conversation, they discussed serious discussions on the IRA, which provide tax benefits to America only. electric vehicles.

The two countries also announced that they would cooperate in implementing a liquidity supply mechanism for financial stability. In this regard, Choi Sang-mok, chief economic officer, added that currency swaps are also included in the liquidity supply.

In the last summit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Yoon promised to further strengthen bilateral economic and security cooperation. He also said that the bilateral relations would be upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

◆After the taste of the Korea-USA-Korea-Japan meeting… ‘Controversies about profanity’ which halved the performance

It is true that the disturbances that continued during the trip of 5 nights and 7 days halved the results of the trip.

Criticism was raised for not being able to worship in person at the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth, which was the first schedule.

In the case of the Korea-Japan summit, President Yun visited Prime Minister Kishida in the building where the office of the Japanese mission to the United Nations was located in New York, and criticized the meeting as humiliating. Additionally, the Korean government described it as a ‘brief meeting’ and the Japanese government described it as ‘talk talk’ about the format.

The scene where President Yoon left the conference room after President Biden’s ‘Global Fund Financial Commitment Meeting’ hosted by President Biden in New York and told Foreign Minister Park Jin and others, “If the Assembly does not National endorses these XXs, what will Biden do?” shake the country

Kim Eun-hye, senior head of public relations in the president’s office, explained, “The National Assembly does not approve and it is said ‘fly’,” and emphasized that President Yoon’s comments did not refer to President Biden.

However, the use of profane language was not specifically mentioned, and the debate increases even more when it is explained that the comments were aimed at the Democratic Party.

[오타와·서울=뉴시스]