<W commentary> Prime Minister Kishida's general policy speech in which South Korea is dissatisfied = The problem is "keeping the promise"

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered his first general policy speech after taking office on the 8th. He explained COVID-19 anti-virus measures, economic policy, diplomacy, and security policy, and said, "We will work hand in hand with the people and take a step toward tomorrow."

The general policy speech is a speech that gives an opinion on the important issues that the Prime Minister will tackle as the administration and the administration policy of the administration. It is held when a new prime minister is elected or when an extraordinary Diet session or a special session of the Diet is convened.

However, while the general policy speech is not required by law, it has been customary since former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida first went to the extraordinary Diet session in 1953.

The Korean media is dissatisfied with Prime Minister Kishida's general policy speech. Even before the speech, there was an article in the Korean media that focused on what kind of position Prime Minister Kishida would have regarding South Korea. In an article the day before, JoongAng Ilbo said, "In this first statement of belief, there is a lot of interest in whether Prime Minister Kishida will show the same position as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga or a different position."

"Korea is an important neighbor. In order to restore a healthy relationship, we will strongly urge the South Korean side to take appropriate measures based on Japan's consistent position," Kishida said in a statement of belief.

In response to this, the Korean newspaper Herald's economy said, "We could not find the possibility of a rapid change in the 'cold Japan-Korea relations' from the content of the speech. "Although he expressed it, he did not show his intention to take pre-emptive measures to restore relations, and the amount and expression of the content was less than in other countries." Also complained, "The speech was about 6900 characters long, but the reference to South Korea was these two sentences."

Yonhap News Agency also said, "I couldn't find a clue from the speech that I could expect a change in Korea-Japan relations." After that, the speeches of Prime Minister Kishida are compared with the speeches of former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in October 2019.

The article introduced that Suga said, "Korea is an extremely important neighbor. We will seek appropriate measures based on Japan's consistent position in order to restore sound Japan-South Korea relations." "Kishida used the same wording but removed 'extremely'," they said. "Suga stated in his policy speech in January this year that" Korea is an important neighbor, without "extremely", and Kishida took over this."

In addition, the article stated that in October 2019, when Abe gave a statement of belief, Japan would tighten export restrictions on South Korea and South Korea would not extend the Korea-Japan General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). It was about a month and a half since then, and Abe and Kishida, who said that "Korea is an important neighbor," pointed out that the wording is the same.

Also analyzed that "the phrase used during the sharp conflict between Korea and Japan seems to be the Japanese side's recognition that it is difficult to expect improvement in bilateral relations behind the fact that it reappeared in the statement of belief." bottom. Adding, "It seems difficult for the time being to break the deadlock between Korea and Japan under the Abe and Suga administrations."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kishida held telephone talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Modi on the evening of the 8th. After taking office on the 4th, he has already completed telephone talks with US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Morrison, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

However, talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in have not yet been realized. By the way, former Prime Minister Suga is had telephone talks with President Moon eight days after taking office.

When will the telephone talks with the leaders of the "important neighbors" that Prime Minister Kishida said in his general policy speech? That may be a number that represents "dating importance" or "new density," but what is more important is its content. South Korea's current administration mobilizes sophistry and does not keep promises, but there is certainly a simple solution.

That is, President Moon unilaterally declares to Prime Minister Kishida that he will "keep his promise." Your pride and self-esteem will be hurt a little, but you should accept that kind of blow because you invited yourself. The mistake of making South Korea and Koreans a liar, not just the administration, is possible until the time when they are in power. From May next year, even that chance will disappear.

A company that says that the new president does not have to keep the promises and contracts made by the former and former presidents even if the president is replaced will be isolated from the business partners and will eventually disappear from society. Of course, the responsibility lies with the new president.