61298 The ratification was exchanged on December 28 of that year.
61299 The relationship between Japan and South Korea in the past 30 years had not been smooth in any shape or form.
61300 Student-dominated large-scale protests objecting to the settlement of the Japan-South Korea Treaty were taken to the streets in South Korea.
61301 The protest campaign was of a national scale that nearly outstripped the demonstrations against the revision of the Japan-US Security Treaty in 1960 in Japan.
61302 The reason for their objection was Japan's refusal to explicitly apologize for the ugly blot in history between these countries, which was a highly moral viewpoint.
61303 Additionally, there was a deep-rooted suspicion that their country might once again come under Japan's control.
61304 Thirty years have gone by, and in South Korea there is a growing opinion that there should be a reassessment of the historical role of the late President Park Chung Hee, who rammed through the normalization of Japan-ROK diplomatic relations.
61305 The people who once opposed the signing of the Japan-ROK Treaty as students are now part of the generation that has the real power in the political and bureaucratic circles in South Korea.
61306 While they still think the anti-Treaty demonstrations as having a point, many of them now are taking the outcome of the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries in a positive light.
61307 With respect to the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea, some Japanese insist that South Korea owes its growth to Japan.
61308 However, the historical assessment of South Korea after the normalization of ties should be left up to South Koreans.
61309 Japan should not be patronizing them about what the Treaty has accomplished.
61310 There also have been some dismal events during these thirty years.
61311 The incident where Mr. Kim Dae Jung, one of the leaders of the opposition party, was abducted from a hotel in Tokyo under broad daylight in 1973 put the relationship between the two countries under the greatest strain.
61312 Also, there was the assassination of Madame Yuk Young Soo, the wife of President Park, by a young South Korean man living in Japan.