EAI Column Moving Beyond the Abe Statement and President Park's Independence Day Speech Young-Sun Ha and Yul Sohn “Bringing ROK-Japan Relations into a New Era” While President Park and Prime Minister Abe made closely watched statements commemorating the Japanese surrender in World War II and the liberation of Korea, they struggled to thaw and renovate ROK-Japan relations. Young-Sun Ha and Yul Sohn propose a series of objectives so that Korea and Japan may properly co-evolve and effectively address the civilizational transformation occurring in a new world order.