By Wonsuh Song
On 8 July, NKNGO FORUM invited former Ambassador to Japan Shin Kak‑soo to deliver a special lecture titled “The Road Ahead for Korea‑Japan Relations on the 60th Anniversary of Normalization.” For me, the presentation locked together two decades of scattered observations into a single coherent blueprint.
In the first half, Ambassador Shin dissected distorted mutual perceptions: the trust deficit born of unresolved history, a climate of anti‑Japan and anti‑Korea sentiment, and the way social media magnifies every misunderstanding. Reducing entire societies to the words of a few politicians, he warned, blocks empirical research and reasoned debate.
Case studies in the same half showed how terminology—compensation versus settlement, occupation versus colonial rule—locks both sides into conflict. Yet the data also reveal that more issues have been settled than remain open, once emotion is removed from the equation.
The middle section labeled today’s ties a “lost decade.” Four fault lines—history, territory, geopolitics and public emotion—move in tandem, imposing compounding costs on both nations.
Here Shin listed eleven persistent misconceptions, from undervaluing Japan’s power to over‑relying on the United States and accusing Korea of a “China tilt.” A sober cost‑benefit chart asked which country actually loses more when relations sour.
The final part shifted to why cooperation is unavoidable. Korea and Japan, he argued, are natural strategic partners sharing democratic values and common stakes in denuclearising North Korea, reconstructing it, and upholding an open Indo‑Pacific. Japan’s capital, technology and financial networks are indispensable for any reunification scenario.
He closed with a seven‑layer blueprint—step‑by‑step management, temporal balance, cooperative framing, objective standards, public‑private partnership, network reinforcement and pragmatic delivery—joined to a centuries‑old admonition never to lose harmony with Japan.
A photograph of speed‑skaters Lee Sang‑hwa and Kodaira Nao embracing underscored that citizen‑level solidarity, not politics, will safeguard the future. NKNGO FORUM now sets out to convert this blueprint from logic into practice.
Wonsuh Song (Ph.D.)
Full‑time Lecturer, Shumei University / NKNGO Forum Representative
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