Then, South Korean President Moon Jae-in passes then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a meeting in Chengdu, China, in December 2019.
10:10 JST, May 19, 2024
SEOUL (Jiji Press) – Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in criticized the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a recently published memoir.
Moon said in the book that Abe showed a fear-mongering stance in 2017 as tensions rose on the Korean Peninsula following a series of missile launches by North Korea. Abe paid no attention at all to South Korea’s position to prioritize easing tensions, Moon argued.
According to the memoir, Abe proposed a joint exercise between Japan, South Korea and the United States on the Korean Peninsula, while saying an exercise should be conducted to evacuate Japanese residing in South Korea.
On South Korea-Japan relations, Moon said that during his term as president, he pursued forward-looking cooperation with Japan in the areas of economy, society and culture, despite Seoul and Tokyo disagreeing on the issues of former so-called comfort women. before and during World War II, including those who were forced to do so.
Japan harmed South Korea by tightening export controls on Seoul in 2019, Moon said, emphasizing that Japan was responsible for the deterioration of bilateral ties.
