Main opposition threatens to open parliamentary investigation into Yoon-Kishida summit

All News 15:41 March 21, 2023

By Kim Na-young

SEOUL, March 21 (Yonhap) -- The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) will consider a parliamentary investigation into last week's summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, its floor leader said, stepping up suspicions Yoon made secret concessions during the meeting.

The DP has slammed Thursday's summit as "humiliating diplomacy," denouncing the government's decision to compensate local victims of Japan's wartime forced labor on its own without asking Japan's government or companies for contributions.

Its criticism rose further following Japanese media reports that unannounced topics were also discussed during the meeting, such as the issue of South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo, Japan's wartime sexual slavery and Seoul's import ban on fisheries products from Japan's Fukushima.

"I wonder how many bills we have received from Japan after giving up everything without getting even a word of apology from Japan," DP floor leader Park Hong-keun said. "We will uncover the truth about the entire Korea-Japan summit from the self compensation plan, the sovereignty over Dokdo, the comfort women deal and the issue of Fukushima fisheries product imports."

The main opposition Democratic Party floor leader Park Hong-keun (C) speaks at a party meeting at the National Assembly in western Seoul on March 21, 2023, against the backdrop of a poster that shows the national flag of South Korea and a phrase that reads, "We cannot buy the future at the cost of history." (Yonhap)

Yoon's office has expressed regret to Japan, calling the reports "distorted," and said it cannot disclose the details of the summit discussions, but the issues of wartime sexual slavery and Dokdo were not discussed during the summit.

"The fact that the presidential office cannot disclose whether the ban on Fukushima's fisheries products was discussed means it was actually discussed," the DP floor leader said.

"The president of the Republic of Korea should have clearly pointed out the problem, but if he opened the door for the import of Fukushima's fisheries products, it means he sold out people's lives and their right to health, as well as history."

Rep. Kim Sung-hwan, the DP's top policymaker, called on Yoon to reveal the truth on whether such issues had been discussed, saying they are matters of South Korea's territorial sovereignty, history and people's safety.

nyway@yna.co.kr
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