Japan and South Korea Look to the Future, for a Change
The US is hosting the two countries at Camp David in a bold departure for a relationship that’s often been backward-looking.
Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea's president, on the left, and Fumio Kishida, Japan's prime minister, leave the stage after a joint news conference in Tokyo on March 16, 2023.
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/BloombergThe leaders of Japan and South Korea arrive at Camp David on Friday for a historic trilateral summit this weekend with relations between the US’s two most important allies in Asia at a new dawn.
Ties between Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Yoon Suk Yeol have improved at a scarcely believable clip in the past five months, ever since the two countries reached a deal to put grievances over forced wartime labor behind them. A flurry of meetings — beers in Tokyo, bomb shots in Seoul and an invite to the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima — have brought the leaders closer than Washington could have hoped.