Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday confirmed that there will be no meeting between the Korean and Japanese leaders during the G20 Summit in Osaka. "We are ready to meet, but Japan does not seem to be ready," a Cheong Wa Dae official claimed. Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his schedule for bilateral meetings at the G20 is "full." Although Abe has time to meet one-on-one with the heads of 15 countries, he could not set aside even a few minutes for an informal "pull-aside" with President Moon Jae-in.

Korea-Japan relations have often been rocky, but something like this is unprecedented. Seoul-Tokyo relations soured last October, when the Korean Supreme Court ordered Japanese companies to compensate victims of forced labor during World War II and courts later authorized the seizure of the firms' Korean assets when they refused to comply.

The government here has also effectively voided a murky agreement struck by the previous administration to compensate victims of wartime sex slavery, which Tokyo insists must be honored. Adding fuel to fire is a spat over coat-trailing flybys of Japanese spy planes over South Korean patrol boats. Last week, Japan flatly rejected a proposal by Korea to have private companies from both sides contribute to a fund to compensate forced labor victims. When that same proposal was brought up late last year, Japan viewed it positively and it was Korea that said it was nonsense.

A top official in charge of Korea at the U.S. State Department said, "Honestly speaking, if Korea-Japan relations are rocky, negotiations with North Korea will not be successful." The comment should be taken seriously, but the Foreign Ministry told lawmakers that it intends to "maintain close communication channels with China and Russia" while leaving Japan out. The global diplomatic arena is no place for playground fights.

