S.Korea-Japan flare-up a setback for US

S.Korea-Japan flare-up a setback for US

gulftoday.ae

A flare-up in tensions between South Korea and Japan marks at least a temporary setback for the United States, which has sought to boost cooperation between its allies as part of its focus on Asia. South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak paid an unprecedented visit on Friday to largely uninhabited but resource-rich islands that are controlled by Seoul and claimed by both countries, infuriating Japan, which recalled its ambassador.

Relations between the two close US allies are frequently rocky due to Korean resentment over Japan’s harsh 1910-1945 colonial rule, and friction is especially comm

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Before we begin I would like to remind you that this is actually South Korea tensions with Japan not North Korea(North Korea and Japan have hostile relations as well but that is another story altogether)

Basically the Article stated that South Korea and Japan tension may rise after a dispute over a group of islands and to mention Korea's hatred toward Japan due to Japanese occupation. What's interesting is that both are US allies and have US military bases. I wonder if war broke out what will China, North Korea, Russia, US and other East Asian nations reaction to this? After all Japan and South Korea each other more especially to counter a rising China. And plus if wa really break out it will be interest on how USA will play a role on this when both countries have US military personnel.

gulftoday.ae
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reply to post by starwarsisreal


this is how i see it happening:
okay so our country says were not doing anything but trying peaceful negotiations between countries, covertly goes against japan pretending to be south koreans and blames china for some covert op, u know how sneaky our government can be... i dont like the looks of this.... oompa loompa doopa dee doo.......

Hi, USAF SSgt here currently stationed in SK.
I can guarantee SK will never attack JP, ever. This will be nothing more than a pissing contest of words.

PLUS, there's too much U.S. Military involved on both sides. We wouldn't allow it, case closed.

USA had always treated all nations as sovereign entities, and would not dictate nor need to.

This is merely another political grandstanding by greedy politicians seeking for power, and with a small but LOUD minority crying nationalism over the islands. China too will come in and stake a claim as will other nations, seemingly looking like one big major FUBAR.

But in truth, there is no need for alarm. Japan, S.Korea, Taiwan and other ASEAN states are civilised nations, with RULE OF LAW to settle those issues, no matter how intractable or the screaming matches by power seeking politicians make it out to be.

China CCP govt would love nothing better than a big mess right now, if they were not the very ones who started it all.

THus, no need to fear. Get ALL parties, including China, to sit down for arbitrition settlement and abide by its final judgement BY ALL. There is no need for sabre rattling. We are not living in jungles or are barbarians today, even if the China CCP govt still think might is right. The lifeblood of the world is trade, not shedding of blood or screaming matches the misled nationalist fools are shouting on streets today.

Ultimately, it's only about the rich resources UNDER the island that everyone is seeking for. Resources aplenty in our world if SHARED, but if precious human lives are lost for it, they are gone forever, for every life means something special to another and no resource on Earth can replace a human.......

Deng Xia Ping - the much admired reformer from the previous era of the CCP govt, of those days when true and upright chinese men struggled to help the chinese people, had once said that the solution of the islands and south china sea is to JOINTLY shared by all nations, to explore and reap its benefits instead of fighting and killing each other over it. He was a wise man.

Unfortunately, the present era of the CCP govt, with its Mao worshipping hardliners still in it, wants a far utilitarian line over the issue. Guess they will have to learn the RULE OF LAW the hard way then, if they persist in thinking might is right.....

reply to post by starwarsisreal


There'll be no fighting, neither nation is insane. Tension in the context relevant just means reduced cooperation.

There is Korean resentment over what Japan did, it's understandable. "Harsh colonial rule" doesn't begin to describe the true horror of what happened. The Japanese people in general don't have a spectacularly high opinion of Koreans either, that appears to my humble observation to be more to do with cultural differences (though I think they have more in common than they acknowledge)... I find the situation very sad and I hope there will be real political and cultural friendship between the countries in the future.

Dokdo/Takeshima seems to me to be a curse... but perhaps it's a challenge and will serve to reinforce positive relations once overcome... I hope that's what it ultimately turns out to be.

sorry i seem to have been drowned by stupid american media, i hate my country..... vote ron paul..... o wait is he still running? haha

The Japanese govt had caught the 'trespassers' on those islands, but thankfully and wisely, they had only been given a 'general standing order drubbing down' and had allowed them to be returned to their homelands, almost immediately.

Pointless to incarcerate them for months, to await trial, while only hatred breds on all sides. It had been a courageous move on the Japanese govt, whom may face a backlash by a minority but vocally loud japanese citizens.

The war of the 40s is long over. Our fellow human brothers and sisters in Japan had repaid several times over to humanity, with their example and work ethics, as well as investments and innovative ingenuity worldwide and to humanity. Truly, enough is enough. Let bygones be bygones. They too had suffered with millions dead during the war and learnt their lesson, as had we mankind all.

May those minority but vocally loud 'trespassers' wake up and realized that they had been used by those whom had greed for power and wealth, manipulated to do what they had courageously, but foolishly did.

Only the Rule of Law can settle the claims of the island. The 'Deng Xiao Ping' principle over the issue - joint funding, exploration and Sharing of the disputed islands is the answer, when international law is not enough.

Trade is the lifeblood of the world, so that we can progress and evolve in peace and prosperity. It is a truism of mankind for the common goals all mankind that had sought for centuries and centuries more.

Truly, the VAST mineral deposits under those un-inhabitable islands in those seas are IMMENSE, to the size of the continents of USA, Europe and Australia combined.

There is enough wealth for all, for it to be tapped, and shared with all mankind, similar with an almost woken up Africa young today using hi-technology to reap and manage those renewable resources without the now aknowledged painful corruption and horror of past eras, that can feed the world for millenia several times over.

We can help our future generations and ourselves with Earth's bounty, but only if responsibly done. We came into this world with nothing and leave with nothing, but our deeds committed to memories for immortality. There is enough for all and more, and need not the fights with losses of precious human lives over it.

NEVER, EVER, let the greedy few determine the direction of our evolution, for to them - the corrupted and misused religious supposed 'spiritual leader' or bankers/Corporation bosses, regression and utilitarianism is the only answer, so that they and their next generations may live in priviledge forever,while the rest of mankind held in chains. Let the civilisational and moral codes be our guide, but never to be misused by the greedy manipulators.

The path to better and greater evolution of our species begin with you and me, and through us, our families, relatives and friends that makes up societies and our world....

Japan and Korea working together will never happen. You either support one or drop one.

South Korea rejects Japan’s idea of taking disputed islands to ICJ

Japan’s central government in Tokyo made the suggestion earlier this week that the dispute over the islands it calls Takeshima should be taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Well, it looks like that won’t be happening as the Korean government in Seoul issued a flat-out rejection of the proposal on Friday. In speaking about the territory known as Dokdo in Korean, a diplomat speaking anonymously stated that South Korea will not respond to any such notion from Japan.

S.Korea should not reject this opportunity, if it feels it has the right to those islands. The rule of law must be upheld.

But instead, it had resorted to emotional appeals on barbarism by the wartime imperial japan army's invasion to stoke up DANGEROUS nationalist sentiments from the young, misused largely by the greedy and corrupted corporation family cabals that S.Korea is well known for.

Ancient history and the 1940s war are long past and gone. Innocent new generations had been born, with no need for baggages of the past saddled upon them.

Today, it is not like Japan is declaring S.Korea belongs to them, or S.Korea claiming Japan belongs to them. The war of of the 40s saw the end of brutal conquests, and allowing the rule of law to rule the world.

It is only over uninhabited and unhospitable disputed islands, laying at distances far from one's shores, which may have or may not have resources under the ground that had caused the greed.

S.Korea may claimed that those island belongs to them, and a few worked up protestors are claiming even that they will go to war over them.

Thing is, can S.Korea lay honesty to such claims?

They can't, simply because they had lost them to Japan when it invaded. IF NOT for USA and the Free world's humanity help to destroy Hitler and Tojo, S.Korea would have still been a province of Japan.

Worse, they could not even protect themselves when N.Korea invaded, and IF NOT for USA and the Free world's humanity help to push back N.Korea supported by China, S.Koreans would be living in poverty and famine today insted of gleaming towers, a modern military and a first world economy.

USA and the Free World is NOT asking for any gratitude in return for the countless thousands of human lives sacrificed to give freedom to the world, and to S.Korea.

But it is hoped that S.Korea REFLECT on why they sacrificed themselves. They did so, so that future generations after them need not go to war anymore, but live in peace, under the rule of law, to settle differences.

May S.Korea and its citizens gesturing today angrily for war not be manipulated by the greedy over the much dubious Syngman Rhee Line , but instead honor our war dead from all parts of the world that gave freedom and opportunity to today's young, whom will not even be here on Earth today, if they had not done so.

Goes the same for China. Chiang Kai Shek drew those dotted lines on the South China Sea by himself when he begged for the Free world's help to end the 40s war that he and the CCP could not win. When the CCP booted out Chiang after the war, so goes too those dotted lines.

USA and the Free World had not disturbed China, nor allowed Chiang to invade China when it had all the capability to do so, and allowed China to know peace for decades. Now that China has grown economically, may it assume its social responsibility to world's humanity, and not behave like the unreasonable mongolian and ching barbarians that the Chinese People hated for centuries, by bullying asian states with its insane claim over disputed islands.