This file photo shows Japanese university students graduating from the Seoul university’s Korean language course on September 2016. (image: Kyung Hee University)
SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The ongoing diplomatic and trade dispute between South Korea and Japan doesn’t appear to be having much impact on exchanges between the two countries’ universities.
According to university officials nationwide on Tuesday, most exchange programs involving South Korean and Japanese universities and their students will proceed this year as planned.
University students from South Korea and Japan will attend the East Asia Peace and Human Rights Camp to be held in Busan from Aug. 18-23, the officials said.
The camp, where the two countries’ students discuss human rights and other issues, has been held more than 30 times since 2002.
A 1979 democratization uprising in Busan and Masan has been chosen as the main theme of the upcoming Busan camp, which is expected to bring together 75 students from Korean universities, including Seoul National University (SNU), Pusan National University and Chonnam National University, and 33 Japanese university students.
On the sidelines of the camp, the students will visit the National Museum of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Occupation and the Busan Modern History Museum, both located in the southern port city.
Japan’s government, which tightened exports of key materials to South Korea on July 4 in apparent retaliation over Supreme Court rulings on compensation for wartime forced labor, decided last Friday to remove Seoul from a list of trusted export destinations.
The Tokyo government’s moves have triggered a nationwide wave of anti-Japanese sentiment, including a boycott of things Japanese.
Sports exchanges between students of SNU and the University of Tokyo are also unlikely to be affected by the ongoing bilateral row.
Fencing teams of the two universities will hold their annual friendly match in South Korea from Dec. 27-30 as scheduled. The friendly fencing match has been held annually since 2003.
“If the venue of this year’s match was in Japan, we may have hesitated to travel. But I think the (political) situation between the two countries should not hinder exchanges by university students,” a member of the SUN fencing team said.
About 10 members of SNU’s boxing team will visit Japan on Aug. 27 for an annual friendly match with their counterparts from the University of Tokyo.
“There was some concern about our planned trip to Japan amid the worsening bilateral relations. But it is not right to suddenly cancel a scheduled event and many said student exchanges are particularly necessary under the present circumstances,” a member of SNU’s boxing club said.
Students from Seoul’s Kyung Hee University and Japan’s Kindai University plan to visit each other’s schools this summer to engage in cultural exchanges and attend language courses.
Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul said the number of its exchange students bound for Japan in the first half of next year increased to 31 from this year’s 20.
“It is difficult to suspend academic exchanges with Japan despite the worsening diplomatic relations,” an official at a Seoul university said.
But the official forecast that South Korean universities will likely be more cautious about launching new exchange programs or expanding existing exchange programs with Japanese universities in the future.
(Yonhap)
