Remarks of Minister Yong Shik Kim, Chief of the Korean Mission in Japan and Chief of ROK Conference Delegation, At Reopening of Korea-Japan Conference, Wednesday, April 15, 1953 (at Tokyo):
YOUR EXCELLENCY CHIEF DELEGATE KUBOTA; Japanese and Korean Delegates:
An eventful year in the life of our nations and the rest of the world has passed since delegations from Japan and Korea sat down together in an official conference to discuss the major problems existing between our two countries. During that time Japan has been engrossed in the vital tasks of renewing her membership in international society and rebuilding her national life. Korea, in that same period, has passed through almost the entire third year of her crusade against communist aggression-a crusade for the benefit of all mankind. The rest of the world, meanwhile, has continued to exist in a state once eloquently described in a famous speech as “half slave and half free.”
So we are resuming this Korea-Japan conference today, nearly a year after the conference was broken off, in a world in which the battle for freedom from enslavement has barely been joined.
I speak of this world situation in connection with our conference not alone to emphasize the interdependence of all the peoples of the earth in these times, but because this situation is critically close to both of our nations. If, as has been said in Japan, this crisis is on your doorstep it can be said to have intruded right into our house! Indeed, this latter expression is tragic fact rather than picturesque speech, because every family in Korea has suffered personal loss, many have seen home and livelihood destroyed, and many, many have been killed, wounded, impoverished or orphaned.
Under normal circumstances it would be desirable that Japan and Korea get along as neighbors, because of the geographical proximity of the one to the other, as I have mentioned in earlier sessions of the conference. But now a neighborly, friendly relationship is not only a desirable thing; it is a real necessity.
Nations not under the rule of the “Iron Curtain” only harm themselves, to say nothing of that gallant and inspired coalition of U.N. states dedicated to the preservation of the freedom of all mankind, if they do not make every effort to come to terms with one another.
Upon his departure for his homeland from Tokyo last January 7, our great President, Dr. Syngman Rhee, emphasized the importance of settling the problems existing between Korea and Japan and remarked:
“Therefore, unless an understanding in one form or another is reached on these problems, we can hardly expect peace in the Orient to be secure.”
It is hardly a secret that there is between Korea and Japan a dark past which we on the Korean side are making every effort to forget. We enter this conference after opposing its interruption in the first place and campaigning for nearly a year to renew it-in a spirit of co-operation and friendship. The old days are over, and I am sure no responsible persons would try to revive them-because to attempt to do so would inflame old antagonisms and delay a rational and just settlement between our two countries.
As Chief Korean Delegate I can tell you honestly that the reopening of this conference means a great deal to me. I have high hopes for it. I hope that you gentlemen and I can sit around the conference table and discuss our problems freely, frankly and earnestly, and that we will come to fair, just and reasonable conclusions. All of you have my Government’s and my own best wishes for the success of these momentous talks. Such success is a goal which many of us know to be in the best interests of our two counties and in the cause of friendship, mutual respect, and freedom.
I thank you.