hankyoreh

Japanese Communist Party (JCP) chairman Kazuo Shii has returned to Japan after a six-day, five-night visit to Korea. Shii and other members of his party were in Korea to participate in an international conference, but it was the first time ever that the head of a communist party has been able to visit South Korea. Even if you take into account the unique circumstances between the two countries, it still feels out of place that it is only long, long after the end of the Cold War that the chairman of a communist party was able to visit the South.

Officially, Shii was here to attend a conference for political parties in Asia. His decision to come himself and not just send other party members was probably due to the fact that he wanted to improve relations with Korean political leaders and elevate his own status in the process. During his time here he had a busy schedule, in which he met with the speaker of the National Assembly, the chairman of the ruling Uri Party, the floor leader of the Grand National Party and other important figures, but the Korean media hardly noticed. That must have been in part because the JCP has only nine seats in each of the Diet’s houses, but another factor must have been the deep distrust and fear our society has towards communist parties in general.

The first place Shii went was to the old prison in Seoul’s Independence Gate Park, where Seodaemun Prison is located, to remind Koreans of the fact that since its founding in 1922 the JCP supported Koreans’ struggle for independence and has led the way in trying to correct the wrongs of Japan’s militarist past. The JCP maintained good relations with North Korea until the two sides got into a fight over Pyongyang’s "Juche Idea," and then in the 1983 there was the North Korean bomb attack on the South Korean cabinet in Burma. That and other factors contributed to the breaking off of relations in the mid-eighties. Since the fall of the Berlin wall and establishment of democracy in Korea, the JCP has tried to make contact with Seoul.

Korea needs to watch the JCP’s reaction to the increasingly right-wing tendencies in Japan. Shinzo Abe is likely to be the next prime minister there, and he is expected to try to amend the country’s "Peace Constitution." Since the collapse of the Japanese Socialist Party, the JCP has been the party with the most seats that opposes such a move. While its role in national politics is limited, it is working in the provinces with civic groups and the labor movement to oppose Abe’s constitutional amendment.

It is important that Korea and Japan have continued, frank discussion among their diverse political groups, whatever their political differences, if Korea and Japan are going to fundamentally resolve their mutual distrust. There is no reason to exclude the JCP from the dialogue.