SUMMARY RECORD OF THE PRELIMINARY TALKS AT THE ADMINISTRATION LEVEL BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA AND JAPAN ....... XVII

Tokyo, August 20, 1957

1. Time and place:
FROM 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., August 20, 1957, at Kayukaikan, Sambancho, Tokyo.
2. Conferees:
The Korean side: Consellor Kyu Hah Choi of the Korea Mission.
First Secretary Pil Shik Chin of the Korean Mission.
The Japanese side: Counsellor Kijiro Miyake of the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
3. The gist of talks:
COUNSELLOR CHOI:
Minister Yiu advised me to review with you the remarks made by Mr. Itagaki at this morning's meeting to the question of revising Article 4 of the draft Agreed Minutes concerning the U.S. Memorandum issue and the Korean claims. Would you please start with explaining your new suggestion?
COUNSELLOR MIYAKE:
The Korean amendment proposal to add the words, "and does not affect Korean claims in any way" in Article 4 of the Agreed Minutes is definitely not acceptable to Japan. At this morning's talks, Mr. Itagaki, Asian Affairs Director, proposed personally to change the order of clauses of Article 4, putting the clause on U.S. Memorandum first and placing the clause regarding the Korean claims issue at the last part of the article. The proposed text would therefore read as follows:
4. Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan:
I understand that with respect to the "Statement of U.S. Position on Interpretation of Article 4 of the Japanese Peace Treaty with Respect to the Korean-Japanese
Claims Settlement" dated June , 1957, the Government of the Republic of Korea is also of the same opinion with the said Statement. I further understand that the said
U.S. Statement does not signify the reciprocal renunciation of the property claims.
Chief of the Korean Mission in Japan:
It is also my understanding.
chief of the Korean Mission in Japan:
In connection with the Korean claims, the Korean side would like to submit for discussion and settlement at the overall talks to be resumed the same proposal that it had submitted at the previous talks.
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan:
In such case, the Japanese side has no objection to discussing for settlement such Korean claims with sincerity."
The change of the order of clauses of the article is proposed with a view to easing anxiety entertained by the Korean side by concluding the article with the words "... the Japanese side has no objection to discussing for settlement such Korean claims with sincerity." and also to make the arrangement of the article more logical.
COUNSELLOR CHOI:
It seemed to me that there is no change in substance of the meaning of the article if the order of clauses was changed as suggested by the Japanese side when there is no revision of words of the article.
COUNSELLOR MIYAKE:
As you said, there would be no substantial change of meaning by changing the order of clauses of the article. However, the amending of words which would effect substantial change of meaning of the article cannot be considered at present. I think it appropriate to take up any divergency and differences of views in this regard at the overall talks. Our view on the proposed change of order of clauses of Article 4 is that we feel that emphasis is placed on the Korean claims clause by placing the clause regarding the Korean claims at the last part of the article and that the change of order would help ease the feeling of anxiety entertained by the Korean side. I hope that you would furnish us with an early reply to our new suggestion.
COUNSELLOR CHOI:
It is hardly believed that there is any change of meanings in substance by re-arranging only order of clauses of The article. I hope that the Japanese side either accepts the most reasonable amendment proposal presented by the Korean side or work out a practicable counter proposal regarding the issue.
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