-japan south korea trilateral relations at an washington.sium in the panel centers on how soft power and media can affect the relationship among the three nations. this is just over one hour. >> good morning. i am excited to be

-japan south korea trilateral relations at an washington.sium in the panel centers on how soft power and media can affect the relationship among the three nations. this is just over one hour.

trilateral relations. i think things like soft power, especially, social media, maybe it is the -- briefly, soft power has the ability to influence iser countries something that japan, south korea and the united states possess and exercise while. i hope we can address how soft power in the media can be used to influence public opinion and promote trilateral relations in all three countries. our panel can also address whether the media and the changing role including social media, has made it easier or harder to foster bilateral and trilateral relationships. i would like to introduce our panelistss to my immediate left -- their full biographies are in the program. i will not go at length, but let me just briefly go down. to my immediate left is ambassador kathleen stevens, former american diplomat and u.s. ambassador to the republic 11.orea from 2008-2000 and other overstate -- her other overseas assignments included china, former yugoslavia, portugal, northern ireland and india. ambassador stevens also served policy positions in washington at the department of state and the white house. currently, she is a president and ceo of the korea economic institute of america. two from m

especially in the context of trilateral relations, u.s., japan, south korea, i mean, how do you see this changing media landscape affecting the ability to shape foreign public opinion and will this be moving in a more positive direction or are we going to see more old stereotypes about different countries? >> that's a good question. because nowadays, in many cultures, moving back and forth between the different countries, for example, as i said, when i was a child, i grew up in -- i was pretty much lived with the american culture. i was always listening to the american pop 40. nowadays people are diversifying and many people are listening to korean k pop or the other type of things. so now it is getting more bolder. but still the newspaper, the hard media is pretty much based on the language. basically our market is japanese readers because we're a japanese publication or sometimes korean newspaper. nowadays, many korean newspapers have a different language, like a japanese website, english website, chinese website but still the hard media is very much the base of the kind of language bo

always had for years that when north korea was being belligerent and launching all of these provocative acts, it was a gift that kept on giving in terms of trilateral relations. thing that all countries could coordinate on and meat on and reproductive on the rear is a lot harder when north korea is engaging think you are negotiating, because everyone's natural priorities come into much sharper relief. so we do have to negotiate these differences and i think there is great discord among all these countries in terms of what is the best approach for dealing with korea. we have south korea very eager to engage, the united states, it depends on who you talk to, on where we are going with north korea, but i think there are certainly differences in approach from that bureaucratic echelons than with south korea, south korea is the most distrustful of engaging to quickly with the north and feels that it's priorities are being marginalized. namely, a particularly personal issue to the prime minister abe, as well as medium-range missile capabilities, which i think are being overlooked in the current negotiations. the other thing at play here is that the united states i

terms of being able to shape public foreign opinion, especially in the context of trilateral relations, u.s., japan, south korea? how do you see this changing media landscape affecting the ability to shape public opinion and will this keep moving in a more positive direction, or are we going to see more reaffirmation of old stereotypes? >> that's a good question, because there are probably -- nowadays, cultures are moving back and forth between the different country quite rapidly. as i said, when i was a child, i grew up, i pretty much lived in the american culture, i listened to the american top 40. now people are listening to korean kpop or other types of things. the country is getting more boreders but still, the newspaper, the hard media, is pretty much based upon that language. newspapers basically, our market is japanese readers, japanese communications but nowadays, many korean newspapers have a different language, but still, the hard media is very much based on the boundaries. now also, i have to say that now we also -- people don't read the newspaper so much nowadays. people are more addicted to social

>> well, to be honest, the current state of the trilateral relationship is terrible i think. and it's because of japan korea relations being in such a low level. ab"i" quite concerned about -- it's in the united states interest to have a strong trilateral relationship. in the obama administration there was a lot of work. certainly the deputy secretary of state led talk was his korean and japanese counterparts that are productive process. and the goal was to look for areas -- it's in all of our interests and we can work together. i think now the ability to convene that kind of a discussion is pretty difficult on the japanese side. i think they used to use the word correa fatigue. but i think it's worse. there is quite a bit of anger. even newspaper that is used to be urging the government to work things out with korea have stopped talking about that. and so i guess my advice to japanese friends is tu twofold. one don't make it worse on the leadership level. avoid steps that only exacerbate the political problem on the other side. and two begin look to medium and long-term solutions that ultimately over a long period o

dependent relations, and when i and mark and kathy and joe incumbent we were all working to promote a strong us-japan-korea trilateral relationship and now we're in the private sector we thought it was useful to prove an organization focused on japan and korea can collaborate and work together to promote common interest, so thank you very much for hosting this event today. getting back to your question though, you are correct president trump himself has challenged the value of alliances. if you look at the national security strategy of the u.s. government which is issued by the trump administration it talks about the importance of alliances in dealing with the major challenge facing the united states which is the emergence of competitors who don't share our interests in china and russia in particular. there is a dichotomy president thinks the president has said both as a candidate and a lesser extent after election and what his administration is saying. one particular issue now that is of interest to the trump administration has been the host nation support negotiations. right now the united states and korea have bee

trilateral relationship and what should we be doing to try to help it along? >> well, to be honest, the current state of the relationship is terrible, i think. because of japan-korea relations being at such a low level. and i'm quite concerned it's in the united states interest to have a strong relationship. i think in the obama administration there was a lot of work, certainly the deputy secretary of state led talks with his korean and japanese counterparts. they were quite productive and the goal there was to look for areas where we could get some clarity in all our interest. i think now the ability to convene that kind of a discussion is pretty difficult. on the japanese side, they used to use korean fatigue but i think it's worse than that. i think there's quite a bit of anger, newspapers that used to be urging the government to work things out with korea have stopped talking about that. so i guess my advice to my japanese friends is two fold, one, don't make things worse. try and avoid steps that only exacerbate the political problem on the other side and two, begin looking toward medium and long-term solutions that ultimately over long period of time could lead to bet

-japan south korea trilateral relations at an washington.sium in the panel centers on how soft power and media can affect the relationship among the three nations. this is just over one hour. >> good morning. i am excited to be