President Kim Dae-jung and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's summit meeting held on Friday was concluded unfinished, as some of the major issues between the two countries were "intentionally" excluded from the agenda. The meeting produced no visible outcome except two state heads reassuring tight cooperation between the co-hosts of the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup in 70 days time.

At a press conference, President Kim showed his appreciation to Prime Minister Koizumi that he emphasized complete observance of seven agreements from Shanghai made last year, including distorted Japanese history textbook and government executives' Yasakuni Shrine visit issues. However, the distorted history textbook controversy is still not completely settled as high school history textbooks could stir it up again, and the Japanese government has not made any substitute measures for the Yaskuni Shrine visit.

The Korea-Japan relationship in the 21st century needs to be freed from the "past" to pursue a future-oriented development based on mutual understanding. However, a new companionship model cannot be constructed overnight, and the two countries cannot avoid putting extra effort to build up mutual trust.

The two state head's agreement to constitute a joint research institute of private business, government and academia to prepare for a Free Trade Agreement between Korea and Japan is one achievement from the summit meeting. An FTA with Japan has special meaning to Korea in catching up with global economic trends, as the country is one of four that have no FTA at all, along with China, Taiwan, and Mongolia, among 144 World Trade Organization member countries. However, as there is a fear of becoming subordinate to the Japanese economy, we must thoroughly plan to maximize the country's interests.

(March 23, 2002)