Washington's interests

For this to happen, the South Korean president had to overcome an obstacle: a Seoul court ordered Japanese companies to compensate forced laborers during the occupation. But Tokyo is opposed to the ruling, believing that the issue was settled by a treaty in the 1960s.

President Yoon came up with a solution: he created a private fund to handle the compensations. Many Koreans are against this solution, as it exonerates Japan, even if one of the survivors involved in the case has accepted the terms. Although unpopular in South Korea, this solution essentially allowed Kishida's visit to take place.

To see how charged the geopolitical context is, just look at a map.

The United States has worked hard towards this rapprochement, considering it catastrophic for their two main allies in northeast Asia to be at a standoff — both countries are linked to Washington by treaties and host American military bases.

Alignment of alliances

To see how charged the geopolitical context is, just look at a map. North Korea's missile arsenal threatens both South Korea and Japan, which are regularly flown over by Kim Jong-un's missile tests. The proximity of China, which is an obsession of Washington, is also crucial.

One of the consequences of this rapprochement is an agreement, signed in 2016 but never implemented, for the sharing of intelligence between Seoul and Tokyo. It seemed absurd at the time, since both were U.S. allies in a sensitive region.

The United States is thus taking care of its alliances in the Indo-Pacific region, to contain the rise of China, a strategy inherited from the Cold War and brought up-to-date. This area is one of the nerve centers of the global economy, a place of innovation. But it is also one of the most explosive regions of the globe, which makes the alignment of alliances logical. Yet such alignments are not necessarily a sign of peace — often just the contrary.