The once-frosty ties between South Korea and Japan that had escalated into serious confrontation gave way to a partnership that went beyond reconciliation and cooperation this year.

The neighbors faced seemingly insurmountable differences over multiple issues, including the victims of Japan’s wartime sex slavery, compensation for forced labor victims and Tokyo’s territorial claims over South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.

The strained ties saw rapid improvement in March when Seoul presented a plan to compensate forced labor victims through a state fund with contributions from domestic companies instead of the responsible Japanese firms.

President Yoon Suk Yeol visited Japan in March, becoming the first South Korean leader to make such visit in four years while Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a reciprocal visit in May, restarting their form of “shuttle diplomacy” for the first time in 12 years.

Following the visits, Japan lifted its export curbs on South Korea and the two nations agreed to completely normalize their mutual military intelligence-sharing pact, called the General Security of Military Information Agreement, or GSOMIA.

Amid such a reconciliatory mood, Tokyo began the discharge of wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant without any major issues in August.

South Korean experts were allowed to visit the plant, and Seoul released a report assessing that Japan’s discharge plan conformed to international safety standards.

The improved relations brought about seven summits between Yoon and Kishida this year alone, as well as both a currency swap deal and the resumption of a high-level economic dialogue for the first time in eight years.

Photo : YONHAP News

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