A surreal drum duet between two East Asian world leaders has set the web abuzz – and put a highlight on Japan and South Korea’s diplomatic relationship.
Decked out in matching blue jackets, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday performed drums to the beats of Ok-pop hits – together with Dynamite by BTS and Golden from hit movie KPop Demon Hunters.
The efficiency, a nod to Takaichi’s previous life as a drummer in a heavy metallic band, wrapped up Lee’s official go to to Japan this week.
It is also a part of Lee’s diplomatic overtures to regional powers together with Japan, with whom South Korea has a fraught historical past however shares a safety alliance.
The drumming session from Tuesday, which Lee described as “a bit of clumsy”, has now spawned a viral video.
Throughout Lee’s go to to Nara, Takaichi’s hometown, he gifted the Japanese prime minister a drum set. The 2 leaders additionally exchanged signed drumsticks after their efficiency.
“After we met at APEC final yr, [Lee] stated it was his dream to play the drums, so we ready a shock,” Takaichi later wrote on X.
Footage of the jam session has received reward on social media.
“Music appears to have the ability to attach hearts at a deeper stage than phrases ever may,” one X consumer wrote in Korean. “Exchanges like this can be quiet, however they may absolutely assist transfer relations between Korea and Japan ahead.”
There have lengthy been sore spots between the 2 neighbours, together with historic grievances from Japan’s colonial rule and territorial disputes.
However each nations are allies of the US, and have labored collectively to counter China’s growing assertiveness within the area.
On Tuesday, Takaichi stated in a press release that cooperation between Japan, South Korea and the US has grow to be more and more vital amid heightened tensions within the area’s “strategic setting”.
Lee and Takaichi have additionally agreed to spice up financial cooperation – a pledge that comes as China has been tightening its export of uncommon earths and dual-use items to Japan.
“Simply seeing them truly enjoying drums collectively – not simply posing – seems like they’re having a lot enjoyable, and that is what issues most,” an X consumer wrote in Japanese.
“Each Korea and Japan are dealing with robust conditions, but when we are able to meet one another midway, I really consider issues will transfer in a constructive course.”
Lee’s smoothness as a diplomat has boosted his approval scores again house.
Days earlier than his viral jam session with Takaichi, he met Chinese language President Xi Jinping in Beijing, with whom he took selfies on a Chinese language smartphone.
Final October, he flattered US President Donald Trump with a big golden crown.
The one chief he hasn’t been capable of appeal is North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Pyongyang has rejected Lee’s overtures for peace and proven little curiosity in reconciliation. This week, Pyongyang demanded an apology from Seoul after accusing it of flying surveillance drones in its territory.
Lee’s rise to grow to be president of South Korea had beforehand sounded alarm bells in Tokyo and Washington. Comparatively unknown exterior his personal nation on the time, Lee had a status as a firebrand who was sympathetic to socialist financial causes.
The US feared South Korea would tilt in direction of China, South Korea’s largest buying and selling companion.
Japan, in the meantime, feared a repeat of a spat in 2019, when South Korea threatened to tug out of an intelligence-sharing settlement after Japan tightened its exports to the nation.
That combat broke out after a South Korean court docket ordered Japanese firms to compensate the survivors of Japan’s wartime pressured labour, a problem Japan now considers resolved.
Since taking workplace, nonetheless, Lee has walked a diplomatic tightrope among the many area’s main powers, from the US to China and now Japan.
Lee heaped reward on Takaichi’s drumming abilities in a publish on X, and likened their diplomatic efforts to the musical duet.
“Even when our timing was barely completely different, our intention to search out the identical rhythm was shared,” he wrote. “In that very same spirit, we are going to proceed to construct a future-oriented Korea–Japan relationship collectively, with one coronary heart.”
