South Korea’s Yoon renews hopes for improved ties with Japan

By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president has called Japan “a partner that shares the same universal values” and renewed hopes to repair ties frayed over Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. President Yoon Suk Yeol made the comments during a Wednesday speech marking the 1919 uprising against the Japanese colonizers. Yoon says a trilateral cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan has become more important than ever to deal with increasing North Korean threats and other global crises. Yoon says “Japan has transformed from a militaristic aggressor of the past into a partner that shares the same universal values with us.”