Seoul has no plans to renegotiate normalization treaty with Tokyo

Well, this is good news. Sort of.

In the aftermath of releasing reams and reams of documents about the negotiations for the 1965 Seoul-Tokyo normalization treaty, the Roh administration has suggested that

But Seoul has no plans to renegotiate the actual agreement, as some in Korea are calling for. According to ROK Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-shik:

The government is not considering renegotiating the agreement at the moment, because observance of any agreement is the way for South Korea to maintain and secure trust in the international community.

It is good to see that some in the Roh administration are not as short-sighted as the knee-jerk anti-Japanese camp. It is clear that Lee understands that Korea's credibility would be seriously damaged if Seoul were to scrap the agreement.

While I do think that Korean individuals, especially former "Comfort Women" and forced laborers, do deserve compensation--and a direct apology--from the Tokyo government, the Seoul government as an entity has come away with all it will get from Japan. Trying to get more will cost Korea far more in indirect costs than it will ever hope to gain.

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