Korean Air to suspend flights between South Korea’s Busan and Japan’s Sapporo as trade row deepens
- Reuters, Kyodo, July 29, 2019
- The airline cited falling demand amid the trade conflict as a reason, and said it was also considering cutting the number of flights between both countries
- The move comes as several South Korean cities said they would suspend administrative exchanges with Japan until the bilateral relationship improved
Korean
Air Lines will suspend its flights between the South Korean city of Busan and Japan’s
Sapporo from September 3 because of falling demand amid a worsening diplomatic
and economic row between the two neighbours.
South Korea’s top carrier is also considering cutting the number of flights
between the two countries or shifting to smaller aircraft from mid-August, a
spokesman said.
The
number of travellers from South Korea was second only to those from China, accounting for 24.2 per cent of visits last year, according to
data from Japan National Tourism Organisation.
The carrier revealed
this as several South Korean cities said they would suspend administrative
exchanges with Japan including its officials’ visits to the neighbouring
country until the bilateral relationship improved.
Among the schemes
suspended was the signing of an accord on goodwill exchanges between Busan,
South Korea’s second-largest city, and Nagasaki Prefecture.
Busan, connected to
Fukuoka city in southwestern Japan by high-speed boats, is known for its active
exchanges with Japan.
Its mayor, Oh Keo Don,
last Tuesday criticised Japan’s tightening of export controls and indicated the
city would consider whether to continue its exchange programmes with Japan.
Japanese chief cabinet
secretary Yoshihide Suga on Monday expressed regret over Busan’s suspension.
“Although ties between
Japanese and South Korean governments are in a tough situation, municipal and
people-to-people exchanges should continue as the basis of mutual
understanding,” said the top Japanese government spokesman.
The East Asian neighbours
have been at loggerheads over compensation for wartime labour during Japan’s
1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
Last month, Japan
tightened controls of exports of hi-tech materials to South Korea, in apparent
retaliation for a South Korean court ruling over wartime forced labour.
Such disputes have
prompted a widespread boycott of Japanese products and services, from beer to
clothes and travel in South Korea.
A student visit to
Ogaki in Gifu Prefecture by some 20 students from Changwon, South Korea, was
also postponed “due to the difficult relationship between Japan and South
Korea”, according to the central Japan city.
The students were
expected to play football and stay at private lodgings during the four-day trip
from Sunday under the exchange programme that began in 1996. But an athletic
association of Changwon requested its counterpart in Ogaki last Friday to
postpone the visit.
Adding to the export curbs, Japan is preparing for Cabinet
approval as early as August 2 to
remove South Korea from a
so-called white list status with minimum trade restrictions, Japanese media have
reported.
Seoul has protested
against the plan, saying it would undermine their decades-old economic and
security cooperation and threaten free trade.
Japanese daily Sankei on Monday reported that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
was unlikely to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in during the United
Nations general assembly in September, the latest sign of frosty relations
between the key US allies.
Abe will not hold
talks with Moon unless Seoul takes constructive steps over forced labour and
other issues, the paper said.
Abe will also forgo
meeting Moon during other opportunities, including an Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (Asean) meeting in October and an Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (Apec) gathering in November for the same reason, the Sankei said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
This article appeared in the South China
Morning Post print edition as: Korean Air mulls reducing flights to Japan as
cities downgrade relations
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