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As South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol landed in Tokyo on Thursday his plan to patch up relations with Japan faces lingering scepticism at home.

South Korean opposition likely poses little domestic political problem for the conservative Yoon, but could affect how far he is able to go in winning cooperation from Japan, experts said.

Yoon's visit to Tokyo - the first such summit since 2011 - comes after he proposed that South Korean companies compensate plaintiffs who won court cases accusing Japanese firms of using forced labour during Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea.

That plan was welcomed in Tokyo and praised by the White House as "ground breaking," but several key victims have already rejected the proposal, and polls show it is generally unpopular in South Korea.

About 59% of the respondents oppose the plan because of the lack of an apology and compensation from Japan; 64% do not consider Yoon’s proposed compensation plan adequate, a Gallup Korea survey showed. Sixty-four percent of the respondents said South Korea did not need to rush to improve ties with Japan if there were no change in Tokyo's attitude, according to the poll.

"I believe that the Korean people will understand how hard the government has worked to heal the wound of the forced labour victims and to build a future-oriented Korea-Japan relations," Yoon said in a written interview with international media on Wednesday, when asked about domestic opposition.

'LAST HURDLE'

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Monday unilaterally passed a resolution through the parliamentary foreign affairs committee urging Yoon to withdraw the plan. Lawmakers from Yoon's People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the committee meeting.

The government's human-rights body said the proposal is not appropriate for the victims by international standards.

"Since the issue of compensation for victims of forced labour is an important issue for restoring human dignity, all countermeasures must consider the emotional and psychological damage suffered by the victims," Song Doo-hwan, chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, said in a statement last week.

That lack of public support at home affects his ability to win concessions from the Japanese, who are wary of making deals that – as with the 2015 agreement over South Korean women and girls forced to work in Japanese wartime brothels – could be swept away by a change of administrations in Seoul, analysts said.

"The last remaining hurdle is resistance from our people," said Kim Joon-hyung, a former chancellor of the Korean National Diplomatic Academy.

Yoon is the latest of many South Korean conservatives who embrace the argument that Seoul must heal divides with Japan to confront security challenges. His administration also seems to be calculating that North Korea's increased missile launches will give them the domestic political cover to push forward with reconciliation, Kim said.

Just hours before Yoon departed for Japan, North Korea test-fired an apparent intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the sea.

CULTURAL TIES

For now, the Japanese public welcome the deal, polls showed. A Kyodo poll said on Monday that 57% of Japanese supported South Korea’s proposal to resolve the wartime labour dispute, while 33% did not. Kishida’s ratings rose to 38%, 4.5 percentage points up from mid-February, according to the poll.

"There's a lot of debate domestically, but Yoon has taken a step forward. Reports from Seoul say Yoon won't use Japan relations for political purposes," a Japanese government source with the knowledge of the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Boycotts of Japanese products and vacations have largely faded in South Korea, and a growing number of South Koreans are travelling to Japan as COVID restrictions ease.

Three Japanese animated films are among the top five at box office in South Korea.

Studies have shown that although South Koreans enjoy Japanese movies and food, however, South Korea's growing stature in the world has made younger citizens less willing than older generations to sweep historical disputes under the rug in the name of closer ties.

"Separate from me liking Japanese culture, we don't need to be submissive to Japan in diplomacy," said Kim Joo-hee, 30, an office worker in Seoul who travels to Japan for her year-end holidays. "So I don't like everything coming out of news these days." (Reuters)

Taiwan warned Honduras on Thursday not to be tempted by the "poison" of aid from China no matter how indebted it was and ruled out getting involved in a bidding war for diplomatic allies with its mainland rival.

Honduran President Xiomara Castro said on Tuesday she had asked her foreign minister to open official relations with China. If the Central American country does end relations with Taiwan, it would leave the island with only 13 diplomatic allies.

Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina said on Wednesday the decision to switch allegiance to China was partly because Honduras was "up to its neck" in financial challenges and debt - including $600 million it owes Taiwan.

"We remind the Honduran government that it should not quench its thirst with poison, even if fully parched by debt obligations," the Taiwan ministry said.

Reina said Honduras had asked Taiwan to double its annual aid to $100 million but never received an answer. Honduras also tried to renegotiate the debt but it came to nothing.

Taiwan denied that, saying comments from the Honduran foreign minister did not reflect facts of their communications. Taiwan responded positively to Honduras proposals from start to finish, it said.

"We're still trying to maintain diplomatic ties, doing our best to fight for it, but we will absolutely not engage in money competition with China," the ministry said.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said former Taiwan allies like Panama, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador have seen "rapid development" in bilateral relations, bringing them "tangible benefits". 

China is willing to develop ties with all countries, including Honduras, on the basis of the "one China" principle, he said, referring to Beijing's position that China and Taiwan are part of one country.

"I believe this will create more opportunities for the economic development of Honduras and the well-being of its people."

The United States, Taiwan's most important international backer despite the absence of formal ties, was watching with concern as China has increased its footprint in Latin America at the expense of Taiwan.

The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday that China makes many promises it does not follow through on.

"The Honduran Government should be aware that the PRC (People's Republic of China) makes many promises that are unfulfilled," a State Department spokesperson said.

China does not allow countries with which it has diplomatic relations to maintain official ties with Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taiwan strongly disputes. (Reuters)

North Korea fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan on Thursday, hours before South Korea's president was due to fly to Tokyo for a summit expected to discuss ways to counter the nuclear-armed North.

North Korea has conducted multiple missile launches this week amid ongoing joint South Korea-U.S. military drills that Pyongyang condemns as hostile actions.

The missile, fired at 7:10 a.m. (2210 GMT on Wednesday) from Pyongyang, flew about 1,000 kilometres at a lofted trajectory, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Japan's defence ministry said the ICBM-type projectile appeared to have flown higher than 6,000 km for about 70 minutes.

It most likely landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zones, 200 km west of Oshima-Oshima Island in Hokkaido, northern Japan, the ministry said.

Japan has not confirmed any information on damage from the missile, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said, adding it had delivered a protest through North Korea's embassy in Beijing.

"North Korea's missile launch is a barbaric act that escalates its provocation to the entire international society," Matsuno said. "We will confirm close cooperation with South Korea and the U.S. towards North Korea's complete denuclearisation at the Japan-South Korea summit today." 

South Korea convened a national security council meeting and "strongly condemned" the missile launch as a grave act of provocation threatening international peace.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered his country's military to carry out drills with the United States as planned, saying North Korea would pay for its "reckless provocations," according to his office.

South Korean and American forces began 11 days of joint drills, dubbed "Freedom Shield 23," on Monday, held on a scale not seen since 2017 to counter the North's growing threats.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said after the launch that regional peace and stability were the most important issue, and White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the United States "strongly condemns" North Korea's latest launch for needlessly raising tensions in the region.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has assessed the missile did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to its allies.

'HWASONG-17?'

Thursday's launch came as Yoon was headed to Japan for the first such summit with Kishida in more than a decade, part of an effort to overcome historical, political and economic disputes in the name of better cooperating to counter North Korea and other challenges.

As part of the efforts, the two U.S. allies have agreed to share real-time tracking of North Korean missile launches, and have vowed to further deepen military cooperation.

"Today's missile launch is an apparent protest not only to the South Korea-U.S. drills but also to South Korea and Japan moving to step up their military cooperation," said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute.

"But such a protest will only push the Yoon government to further strengthen cooperation with Japan, and trilaterally with the United States, and have a boomerang effect," he added.

It was not immediately clear what type of ICBM was launched on Thursday, but a South Korean military official said that the missile appeared similar to the Hwasong-17 - a liquid-fuel missile North Korea has tested before - and that it was unlikely to be a new solid-fuel ICBM.

The Hwasong-17 is the North's biggest missile, and is the largest road-mobile, liquid-fuelled ICBM in the world, capable of delivering a nuclear warhead anywhere in the United States.

Some analysts have speculated it could carry multiple warheads and decoys to better penetrate missile defences.

North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes are banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions, but Pyongyang says weapons development is necessary to counter "hostile policies" by Washington and its allies.

North Korea's state news agency KCNA said on Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un led a ruling party meeting to discuss and decide on "important practical" war deterrence measures, saying "provocations of the U.S. and South Korea are reaching the red-line." (Reuters)

Australia's five largest pension funds were not doing enough to push fossil fuel companies toward decarbonisation, activist investor group Market Forces said on Wednesday, arguing their environmental commitments could amount to greenwashing.

The term 'greenwashing' describes exaggerated and misleading claims that suggest an entity are stewards of the environment without real action.

Market Forces said in a new report AustralianSuper, Commonwealth Super Corp, Australian Retirement Trust, Aware Super and AMP, which cumulatively manage more than A$1 trillion ($668 billion) in savings, had failed to "demonstrate effective engagement strategies".

Commonwealth Super Corp, Australian Retirement Trust, Aware Super and AMP did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking comment. AustralianSuper declined to comment.

Funds must act to prevent fossil fuel expansion, require polluters take meaningful action on decarbonisation and divest from companies that don't, the report said.

"(Pension) funds relying on active ownership to fulfil their climate commitments but failing to rein in rampant oil and gas expansion plans are greenwashing and exposing themselves to legal action for misleading conduct," Brett Morgan, retirement funds campaigner at Market Forces, said in a statement released along with the report.

Australia's corporate regulator has ramped up action against greenwashing, last month accusing pension fund Mercer Superannuation of misleading members about the sustainability of some of its investment options. (Reuters)