South Korean President Yoon has landed in Tokyo for a two-day summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. This is the first high-level summit between the two leaders of neighboring countries in 12 years, when in December 2011 then-President Lee Myung Bak met Premier Yoshihiko Noda in Kyoto. Yoon, who took office in May last year, has been trying to improve ties with Japan while strengthening military cooperation with the United States. At the center of the discussions will be the security and stability of the Asia Pacific region, China’s expansionism and the threat of Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear program. In the afternoon, Japanese premier Fumio Kishida will welcome President Yoon Sul Yeol, who is visiting with his wife, in an attempt to bring the positions of the two neighboring countries closer together, characterized by frequent animosities, and separated by disputes dating back to the colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula by the Japan, between 1910 and 1945, until the legal disputes over crimes committed in World War II by the imperial army. Yoon has already said that he aims to ‘reinvigorate’ security cooperation, as desired by the ally in Washington, and according to the Japanese public broadcaster NHK, the two leaders are preparing to confirm the resumption of a bilateral security dialogue, suspended since 2018. Executive sources also confirmed to the press that they wanted to guarantee a series of regular exchanges and visits between the two shores, which were interrupted in 2011. The last time a South Korean president went to Japan was in June 2019, for the G-20 summit in Osaka, but then President Moon Jae In decided not to hold a bilateral meeting with then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
A few hours before Yoon’s arrival in Japan, North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan. This was reported by the South Korean joint staff, quoted by the Yonhap agency, stating that it had detected the launch from the Sunan area in Pyongyang. Previously, the armed forces in Seoul had reported the launch of an unidentified ballistic missile. North Korea launched what it claimed was a Hwasong-15 ICBM on Feb. 18.