The leaders of South Korea and Japan should never have gotten along so well.
President Lee Jae-myung rose to prominence in a party that has long been skeptical of rapprochement between South Korea and Japan, which brutally oppressed South Korea as its colonial ruler. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is known for arguing that Japan's wartime atrocities, including on the Korean peninsula, were exaggerated.
However, when the two leaders met in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday - their third summit meeting since October - both sides reaffirmed what Sanae Takaichi described as "ever-deepening friendship and trust".
Lee Jae-myung characterized the relationship between the two countries as "a strategic partnership to jointly respond to the rapidly changing international environment."
Referring to the impact of the Iran war, he added: "In particular, we agree that amidst the recent turbulence in supply chains and energy markets caused by the situation in the Middle East, close cooperation between the two countries is needed more than ever."
Here’s what you need to know about your two-day visit to Takaichi Sanae.
What changes have South Korea-Japan relations experienced?
Although both are core allies of the United States, South Korea and Japan have frequently clashed due to historical and territorial disputes caused by Japan's colonial rule of South Korea from 1910 to 1945. The United States has long urged the two countries to put aside these historical grievances and work together to help curb China's expanding military and economic influence.
(Just over the weekend, President Trump called Takaichi Sanae and Lee Jae-myung to update them on his talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing last week.)
Relations between the two countries hit a low point around 2019, when the two governments once again engaged in a bitter dispute over the historical legacy of so-called "comfort women" - South Korean women who were forcibly recruited as sex slaves for the Japanese army during World War II.
But Lee's predecessor, Yun Seok-yue, repaired relations with Tokyo, arguing that historical differences should not prevent the two countries from guarding against security threats from North Korea and China. While Yoon won praise from Washington, he faced strong opposition at home, especially from Lee Jae-myung's Minjoo Party, which was the main opposition party at the time. Yin Xiyue was eventually deposed after the brief period of martial law he imposed.
Lee Jae-myung, who had fiercely criticized Yun Seok-yue, won the presidential election in June last year. Four months later, Sanae Takaichi became Japan's first female prime minister.
Observers in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington had worried that relations between South Korea and Japan might once again reach a freezing point.
How did the two leaders develop a good relationship?
Lee Jae-myung and Takaichi Sanae surprised the doubters.
After taking power, Lee made pragmatism a pillar of his foreign policy - which included improving ties with China and North Korea while strengthening ties with Washington's traditional allies. It also means he won't let historical grudges get in the way of a closer partnership with Japan.
Soon after Sanae Takaichi took office, he met Lee Jae-myung in Gyeongju, South Korea. Lee Jae-myung subsequently visited Takaichi’s hometown of Nara in January this year. A highly symbolic moment in the development of their relationship was when Takaichi Sanae, an amateur heavy metal drummer, invited Lee Jae-myung, who had no drumming experience, to join her on K-pop hits, including BTS's "Dynamite" and "K-Pop's" "Golden."
Lee Jae-myung then invited Takaichi Sanae to visit his hometown of Andong in central South Korea. This is an ancient city famous for producing many Confucian scholars who served in the imperial court.
In recent years, calls for Seoul and Tokyo to work closely together to deal with disruptions to global supply chains and growing geopolitical uncertainty — including the Trump administration's rapidly shifting foreign policy — have grown in South Korea and within Lee's Democratic Party of Korea.
"From a geopolitical perspective, South Korea and Japan have more reason to work together to uphold a rules-based international order given Russia and North Korea's sanctions-violating military deals, China's expansionary policies in Asia, and trade uncertainties related to Trump's tariffs and conflicts in the Middle East," said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea.
What other arrangements are there for the visit?
South Korean officials were eager to solidify the cordial relations between the two leaders, providing Sanae Takaichi with what they described as "courtesy and hospitality equivalent to the level of a state visit." When Gao Shi's car arrived in Seoul to attend the summit, he was escorted by a traditional Korean honor guard dressed in costumes and playing trumpets and military drums.
