February 25th marked the end of South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s first full year in office. As she kept up her seemingly unceasing anti-Japanese words and deeds, Park yet again denounced Japan—this time over the so-called “comfort women” issue—when she received Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Relations, in Seoul on February 18th. The US law maker had recently visited Glendale, California, to kneel to pray before the statue of a girl in traditional Korean dress erected by Korean-American activists as a memorial to the “comfort women.”

　　　Meanwhile, a Japanese newspaper correspondent in Seoul quoted South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency as reporting that Seoul and Beijing have recently agreed to erect a monument in Xian, Shanxi Province, honoring the Gwangbokgun Korean Independence Army that resisted Japan’s rule over the Korean Peninsula (1910-1945). Park is believed to have made the request for the monument last June when she paid an official visit to China.

　　　Further, the Korean government is expected to refer the “comfort women” issue to the United Nations Human Rights Commission as part of its appeal in the international community against Japan’s posture towards this matter. There is, in the Japanese dictionary, a word that best describes the Korean president, who obviously is dead set on making preposterous accusations against Japan—“futsuu.” It implies that there is no knowing what is on the mind of the person in question, as the person is “incommunicado.”

　　　Ms. Park reportedly is not the type of politician who likes to engage in a lively exchange of views and ideas with cabinet ministers, or with the press for that matter. In point of fact, the February 25th edition of the liberal mass-circulation newspaper the Asahi Shimbun reported that over the past year, Park has held only one news conference at home featuring a Q&A session. Beyond official functions and press interviews, she is said to seldom get out, rarely having meals with friends and preferring to spend most of her time by herself in her spacious official residence, reading books and government documents with her pet dog close by. Informed sources note that her aides work far into the night, emailing reports to the president at 2 or 3 a.m., and that Park reads these reports when sent and judges the degree of her staff’s loyalty on the basis of such reports.

　　　In the Japanese edition of Adversity Refines Me & Hope Moves Me (Wisdom House Inc., Seoul; 2007) put out last January shortly before she took office, Park declares: “There is something inside me that has always remained the same—the decision I made when launching into politics (in 1989) that my life isn’t mine alone but belongs to the people instead, and my original determination to devote myself solely to the people and the country.” [Editor’s Note: The Japanese edition was published by Bansei-sha, Yokohama.]

Defenseless against the Real Threats

　　　In this book, Park states that she makes it a rule to express her gratitude to those who have helped South Korea whenever she travels abroad. For instance, she depicts with adoration then Chinese president Hu Jintao, whom she met on a 2005 visit to Beijing, noting his “tender and gentle face” and “intense charisma.” She further writes fondly of her first encounter with Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State in the Bush administration, stating: “She made me feel very close to her, as if we had seen each other many times before.” And yet Park expresses entirely different sentiments towards Japanese leaders.

　　　Writing about her visit to Japan in 2007, Park holds Japan “responsible for the deterioration of Korea-Japan relations,” alleging the following as what has caused the diplomatic rupture between Seoul and Tokyo: “thoughtless words by Japanese leaders about the last war, the Takeshima/Dokdo dispute, visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, as well as matters relating to Japanese history textbooks and the ‘comfort women.’” She further describes a large number of Japanese she had met as “armed with uniformly parochial Japanese logic,” concluding that her visit to Japan “has proved that, despite the limitless possibilities that Korea-Japan relations embrace, it would be impossible to take even one step forward unless these historical issues are resolved.”

　　　Citing a widely-quoted phrase—“It is best to win without fighting”—from The Art of War, a 6th century B.C. book by legendary Chinese military strategist Sun-tze, Park claims that South Korea can and will apply full diplomatic power in its dealings with Japan. From Park’s statement that, “Diplomacy vis-à-vis Japan requires more patience than with any other nations on earth,” one discerns the firm determination on the part of Korea to eventually corner and punish Japan no matter how much patience it may take.

　　　While positioning as a matter of grave national importance stern criticism of Japan Park at the same time demonstrates an appalling lack of preparedness against North Korea, which constitutes the actual threat to her nation.

　　　On February 17th, the Commission of Inquiry of the United Nations Human Rights Committee released a final report on North Korea, declaring as “crimes against humanity” what the national institutions of that hermetic communist nation have done to political prisoners, those who have attempted to flee the North, and abductees. The commission recommended to the UN that those responsible—including “the leader (Kim Jong-un) and others in charge of North Korea’s National Defense Commission and State Security Department (secret police)”—be referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The conclusion was that criminal charges be pressed against Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un.

　　　Against such a backdrop, however, the South Korean government failed to refer to issues pertaining to North Korea’s nuclear program during the meetings held earlier this month in Panmunjom between high-ranking officials from the two Koreas. Furthermore, Seoul promised to not criticize Pyongyang, while deciding to prevent escapees from the North from releasing balloons carrying leaflets denouncing the North’s regime. Such a posture on the part of the South exemplifies how hopelessly naïve President Park’s judgment is on the harsh realities surrounding South Korea.

　　　Facing such a diplomatic posture on the part of Seoul, Washington has urged Seoul and Tokyo to strive to strengthen their unity. The stubbornness with which Seoul clings to its position vis-à-vis the history issue is conspicuous from the transcript of a joint press conference in Seoul on February 13th with US Secretary of State John Kerry and his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se.

　　　Whereas Kerry stressed the importance of efforts to maintain closer trilateral cooperation while urging Seoul and Tokyo to make efforts toward putting historical differences aside, Yun refuted the visitor by remarking:

　　　“Of course, (with the Abe administration) we have made a lot of efforts to stabilize the relationship. But unfortunately…during the past few months, some Japanese political leaders have made a lot of historically incorrect remarks. So, as long as (historically revisionist remarks) last, …it will be difficult to build trust between our two countries…sexual slavery as well as our countries’ views on history are a matter of concern for the international communist (beyond being a bilateral problem).”

Virtual State of Emergency on the Korean Peninsula

　　　Obviously, South Korean leaders, including its president and foreign minister, are unable to recognize the big picture of—and the truth about—the situation surrounding the Korean peninsula, which is in a virtual state of emergency already. Pro-Pyongyang elements have infiltrated the core of the South’s government. In this column I have often sounded the alarm about the crisis faced by the South Korean National Intelligence Service, which may as well be called Seoul’s last stronghold against infiltration from the North. If this body is to be disbanded, as threatened by the opposition, the South will be completely defenseless against North Korean forces. In point of fact, it will endanger the very existence of South Korea as a nation. China, which regards the on-going crisis in the South as a golden opportunity for its domination, is quietly spreading a net of future control over the entire peninsula.

　　　Obviously, the two nations that can truly be on Seoul’s side at this juncture are Japan and the US. In view of the sweeping changes in the US military policy, South Korea should immediately stop denouncing Japan—an act akin to strangling itself—by taking measures to not fall into the trap of exaggerated historical victimization.

　　　On February 24th, Secretary Chuck Hagel announced a large reduction in the proposed US defense budget for next year. The plan calls for shrinking the active-duty army to between 440,000 and 450,000 soldiers over the next five years, down from the current 520,000. All A-10 attack airplanes are slated for mothballing, the navy’s eleven aircraft carriers will be down to ten, and the marines will be reduced from 190,000 to 182,000.

　　　Hagel indicated that this represents a first-stage reduction and that, if the budget continues to be reduced, US forces would not be able to fight a “two-front war” if more than one large-scale contingency occurs simultaneously. What, then, is South Korea going to do?

　　　I wish to stress once more: With North Korea already in a real state of emergency, China looking for an opening on the Korean Peninsula, and US forces affected by sharp spending cuts, does South Korea really think it has the luxury of being at odds with Japan? Hasn’t the utter inflexibility of President Park made her blind to this obviously grave situation, proving her incompetent as a national leader at such a critical time?

　　　But there is also nothing praiseworthy about the current situation in Japan. Despite facing such a harsh security environment, there still are those among us who are bitterly opposed to our exercising our right to collective self-defense. They maintain that a constitutional revision must come first. Do they seriously expect China to wait that long?

 (Translated from “Renaissance Japan” column 597 in the March 6, 2014 issue of The Weekly Shincho)