한일관계의 ‘과거직시/미래지향’에 대한 시론적 고찰 - 노태우, 김영삼, 김대중, 노무현 정권기 -

Abstract

Entering 2023, the relationship between South Korea and Japan has undergone a dramatic change. Ahead of the 70th anniversary of the US-ROK alliance, the Yoon administration has been seeking a solution to the issue of reparations for victims of Japanese forced labor to normalize bilateral relations since its inauguration, and has announced the government’s stance and policy on victims through a public-private council and communication channels. Following President Biden’s “groundbreaking” response to the announcement, ROK and Japan held a summit in March to try to move away from the conflict phase. Japan’s expression of welcome to the Washington Declaration signaled the restoration of trilateral cooperation. With a second bilateral summit in May and the G7 Hiroshima Summit, bilateral relations returned to normal with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s forward-thinking remarks on the issue of victims of forced labor and the commemoration of the Korean atomic bomb victims’ memorial. Prior to this normalization, there were academic attempts to elucidate the conflict structure between the two countries by focusing on the historical, economic, and security crises that severed the relationship during the Moon administration. In particular, these studies focused on the change in the mutual national power of ROK and Japan, identifying that the equalization of their national power creates a different stage of conflict than before. These perspectives can be categorized into the ROK-Japan reversal theory and the Korea-Japan equalization theory. Among them, the ROK-Japan reversal theory even makes a bold prediction that ROK will overtake Japan in the future, providing a kind of catharsis for Koreans and an uncomfortable truth for Japanese. Predictions aside, these analytical perspectives are important because they shed new light on the conflict structure of ROK-Japan relations. Nevertheless, the core of the conflict remains the issue of history. And this historical issue has remained a source of anxiety for both countries without seeing a diplomatic resolution in the new “facing squarely the historical facts/future-oriented relations” concept of bilateral relations that began during the Roh Tae-woo administration in 1988. Therefore, this article examines how the historical issue remained diplomatically unresolved in the “facing squarely the historical facts/future-oriented relations” concept of ROK-Japan relations in 1988-2008.