Asia-Pacific

Former S. Korean President Moon Jae-in Raps Japan’s Shinzo Abe in Memoir

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Then South Korean President Moon Jae-in passes by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a meeting in Chengdu, China, in December 2019.

Jiji Press

10:10 JST, May 19, 2024

SEOUL (Jiji Press) — Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in a recently published memoir, criticized the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Moon said in the book that Abe showed an attitude to incite anxiety in 2017, when tensions grew on the Korean Peninsula following a series of missile launches by North Korea. Abe did not pay attention at all to South Korea’s position of putting priority on easing tensions, Moon argued.

According to the memoir, Abe proposed a joint drill among Japan, South Korea and the United States on the Korean Peninsula while saying that a drill to evacuate Japanese people staying in South Korea should be conducted.

On South Korea-Japan relations, Moon said that he pursued future-oriented cooperation with Japan in the fields of the economy, society and culture while in office as president despite Seoul and Tokyo being at odds over the issues of former so-called comfort women before and during World War II, including those who were forced to do so.

Japan did harm to South Korea by tightening its export controls on Seoul in 2019, Moon said, stressing that Japan was responsible for the deterioration in the bilateral relations.