Thread by @aramhur

#SouthKorea made a significant move today on #Japan relations, saying its own govt will compensate victims of Japanese forced labor during WWII, ending a years-long feud on the issue.

Is it progress? Why I'm pessimistic 🧵/1
nytimes.com/2023/03/05/wor…

President Yoon @President_KR justified based on national interest, esp Korea's future challenges re: NK & China, & how Japan is now a country that shares "universal values" w/ South Korea. US applauded the move. What could possibly be wrong w/ that? /2

On the one hand, this appears to be a classic example of @EunbinChung 's theory of national identity affirmation (NIA) in her book, Pride, Not Prejudice, in which she argues that affirming one's own national identity/pride can help overcome past conflicts/tensions. /3

But it's complicated. See my roundtable review of timely & thought-provoking book just published @HDiplo. /4
networks.h-net.org/node/28443/dis…

Specifically, the "universal values" as national interest narrative is one owned by the SK right. Already there is immediate backlash from SK left citing the move as a "national betrayal." /5

This left-right division in nationalist vision traces all the way back to elite nationalist conflict following the Korean War between the present-day progressives & conservatives in SK. /6

I've written about this in a recent edited volume on SK's Democracy in Crisis @StanfordSAPARC and expanded upon it w/ @AndrewIYeo in a working paper on nationalist #polarization and #democratic ceilings. /7
fsi.stanford.edu/publication/so…

As @eunajo_ recently wrote @ForeignAffairs, these split domestic narratives constrain international action sets and repertoires in real ways. /7
foreignaffairs.com/japan/japan-an…

So will this progress on #Korea #Japan relations stick? That will depend on public buy-in, and that in turn depends on whether the conservative govt can frame the narrative & issue the funds in ways that co-opt the progressive counter-narrative. /8

By citing shared "universal values" w/ Japan as the main driver for the decision, however, the conservative SK govt has already misstepped domestically. So will it stick? I'm unfortunately pessimistic. /9