Japan reluctant to accept proposal to declare Korean War over

We are not at war with NK

Yrral, formally you are.

Moon in the dying days of his term is desperate to achieve something to create a legacy as every other policy he has tried has failed so now he will sacrifice South Koreas future security in a desperate and doomed effort to finally achieve something.

YrralToday  07:56 am JST

We are not at war with NK

Technically we are, but both sides have mostly stoopped shooting.

North Korea shelled South Korea in 2010 killing civillians, and sinking a South Korean ship with the loss of 45+ lives are generally not considered actions of a nation at peace with its neighbour.

If South Korea, the US and North Korea want to finish the war, they just declare the end of the war. Who cares about it. However North Korea would not agree it. By the way Japan is not at war from the beginning.

The US has never been at war, formally, with any Korea. It was called a "police action" in the US and Senate never declared war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_action#Examplesof%22police_actions%22

Same for Vietnam and all "wars" since WW2 in 1942.

Does this concern Japan in any way? Were they active participants in the Korean War? If they didn't participate, they're part of the peanut gallery and if that is the case the peanut gallery should butt out.

The US has never been at war, formally, with any Korea. It was called a "police action" in the US and Senate never declared war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_action#Examplesof%22police_actions%22

Same for Vietnam and all "wars" since WW2 in 1942.

The US sent aircraft carriers and thousands of Army soldiers to Korea and Vietnam. Thousands of soldiers died in battlefields there. Those were not war? It seems to me the "police action" was no longer there.

Same for Vietnam and all "wars" since WW2 in 1942.

Because the US has never won since then.

Does this concern Japan in any way? Were they active participants in the Korean War? If they didn't participate, they're part of the peanut gallery and if that is the case the peanut gallery should butt out.

Because Japan has nothing to with that war nor has any obligation to pay a dime to pay for the peninsula doesn't it?

South Korean President Moon Jae In said in his speech at the U.N. General Assembly in September that he will seek to declare a formal end to the Korean War, naming China as a potential partner along with the two Koreas and the United States. He did not mention Japan.

So what is the point of this article?

The North invaded the South, and got kicked out.

China forced the U.S. and allied forces out of the North.

The South, today, is far stronger than the North, but the dictatorship in the North is happy to keep themselves in power, and no one wants to risk nuclear war to liberate the Northerners.

Anyway, as we all know, it's just LDP smoke and mirrors to pretend they are caring about an issue they just want to milk until the last drop of blood (or the last abductee family member kicking the bucket)...

exactly

Maybe the 'abduction' issue would be resolved differently if the war were over.

I admit to not being an International law expert, but I strongly doubt South Korea can unilaterally delare the war over. Any war is between at least TWO parties.

Wishful thinking and politics from Moon.

Japan very much has a say, and it will align with the guarantor of it's security, the United States. Japan was not a member of the UN until 1956, however Japan participated and lost lives in the 1050/51 Korean War.

"While the Japanese economy did receive a tremendous boost, Japan was not just a bystander during that war. It allowed U.S. troops to use over a dozen airfields, 10 seaports, 14 hospitals, and numerous Army bases. Japanese transport ships were directly involved in the ferrying of U.S. troops and supplies to Korea. In addition, over a hundred motorized small vessels were sent to Pusan (Busan) as lighters, carrying troops and supplies from large ships to shore. Also, many Japanese nationals served as crewmen on U.S. supply ships. One source mentioned that 37 landing vessels at Inchon were crewed by Japanese nationals. In November 1950, when the U.S. Army tugboat (LT-636) hit a mine, 22 of the 27 Japanese among the crew were killed"

"Not widely known is that Japan sent minesweepers and crews into actual combat to assist the limited number of available U.S. minesweepers during the first six months of that war. Over 1,000 crewmembers from Japan’s Maritime Safety Agency, with over 40 minesweepers, in addition to a couple of trial ships (ships that re-check areas cleared of mines) and some patrol boats, were involved in combat operations clearing mines in Korean ports"

https://japan-forward.com/remembering-the-korean-war-japanese-blood-was-shed-in-the-defense-of-south-korea/

Moon "the Appeaser" is doing his last Kiss-NK show before leaving office. And his political enemies throw him in jail in accordance with SK tradition. Moon succesfully took advantage of Potus45 to legitimize the Kim Regime, something that US administrations of both parties had avoided for decades. The world gained nothing in return. Until this traitor Moon is out of office SK can not be considered a US Ally.

Japan has shown reluctance to accept a proposal by South Korea to declare a formal end to the Korean War

Japan gets no say in the matter.

Maybe the 'abduction' issue would be resolved differently if the war were over.

The "abduction issue" is as resolved as it will ever be. Time to move on.

A peace treaty between North and South is the first logical step on a long road of nuclear disarmament and sanctions removal.

Everything else that has been tried has failed. The one thing that has not yet been tried, a peace treaty, looks like the only way forward.

Simply, the Japanese government fears a unified Korea.

SJToday  02:17 pm JST

Simply, the Japanese government fears a unified Korea.

Nobody has ever feared, or will ever fear, a Korea unified or not.

If Japan does not want an end to the Korean War, then let them invade the North and end it on their own terms.

Americans are tired of supporting this standoff that is no more than ego gratification for countries half a world away.

If you can get rid of your enemy then there’s no need to spend on your own defence is there?

There’s always gonna be some type of monster hanging around with the panic to continue….

The Korean War ended in a draw, for it ended with a cease-fire and not a peace treaty. There was no winner nor loser as far as the countries involved are concerned.  The two sides are technically still at war even today.

Now, South Korean President Moon Jae-in's proposal is to end it formally once and for all by mutually signing a peace treaty. By dint of which, he hopes, North Korea will come to five-nation talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula once again. 

Will North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un be happy with this arrangement?

zichiToday  03:33 pm JST

The Japanese minesweepers were mostly used to clear mines from the Japan Sea put there during the war. And Korea Ports. Japan made a lot of money from the Korean War.

What the heck is wrong if Japan made money from war-related demands ? Japan was not really a independent sovereign nation then

SJToday  02:17 pm JST

Simply, the Japanese government fears a unified Korea.

Nobody has ever feared, or will ever fear, a Korea unified or not.

Japan seems to be rather fed up with this split. If you want to unify, or unite, just do it. Don't just forget to confirm how majority opinions within South Korea are like.

Ending whatever war is good. Don't just name Japan to pay bloody tax money to celebrate just ending the war. Japan has nothing to do with your split nor has any obligation to pay a penny

Korean war would be officially declared as over. So what?

Why???

@OssanAmericaNov. 8  02:53 pm JST

Nobody has ever feared, or will ever fear, a Korea unified or not.

Ordinary Japanese may think like you, but your leaders and scholars are serious about it.

https://asiatimes.com/2010/02/the-last-frontier-of-the-cold-war/

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/yamaji2004.pdf

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/The-Big-Story/Imagining-a-unified-Korea

People really need to learn their history. The abduction issue is important to Japan, but there are many other counties who would like the nuclear issues resolved BEFORE they would support an official end to the Korean War.

On another note, Someone said above that Japan is 'fear' a unified Korea. There are only 2 countries that don't want a democratic Unified Korea. North Korea and China.

North Korea has said it will reject any South Korean proposal to declare a formal end to the war unless the United States withdraws its "hostile policy" toward the North

This is all about NK trying to get concessions from the U.S. which is not going to happen. Japan needs to sit back, be polite and do nothing.

On the Japanese who followed US forces into the Korean War, from the following link:

https://apjjf.org/2012/10/31/Tessa-Morris-Suzuki/3803/article.html

"The great majority had simply followed their US employers onto the transport vessels when American troops were deployed to Korea in the early weeks of the war. Often, neither US employer nor Japanese employee seems to have realized that this might cause problems or evoke an official reprimand. The casual nature of the process is suggested by the testimony of a US army sergeant who helped to arrange the transport of a Japanese mechanic (known to him only as ‘Charley’) to Korea: ‘it was the day we left Camp Drake for Yokohama. I asked [the Major] about Charley going to Korea with us, and he said, OK, go ahead. In some cases, the Japanese employees had specifically asked to be taken to Korea; in others, the initiative had been taken by their American superiors: ‘A Sergeant Smith asked me to come along. ‘1st Sergeant Bush said they would need an interpreter, and asked the Company Commander if I could go, who said it was alright’. Almost all the Japanese said that they had gone voluntarily, although one added that, when he agreed to follow his employers to a ‘distant place’, he had not realized that the place in question was Korea.

In Korea, most of the Japanese continued to occupy the positions that they had held on bases in Japan; but the move to a war zone brought dramatic changes to their lives. For one thing, all now donned military uniforms - in most cases, US uniforms. The exceptions included two Japanese men who chose to join ethnic Korean volunteers receiving training at US bases in Japan, and were incorporated into the South Korean military (a topic to which we shall return). One other Japanese national who traveled to Korea with the US military said that, after his arrival, his American superior had provided him with a Republic of Korea (ROK) military uniform and told him, ‘now you are a Korean'. Almost a third of the Japanese employees said that they had been issued with weapons, and even some of those who were unarmed carried out combat-related duties. One unarmed ‘houseboy’ was given the task of carrying mortar ammunition, while another joined his American employer on military patrols until the latter decided that ‘there would be trouble if the Communists found out I am Japanese"

Japan was not a direct party involved in the Korean War. So, as some poster says, it shouldn't have any say about pros and cons of the peace treaty South Korean President Moon Jae-in has proposed.

Note, however, that the Korean War gave Japan a boon, special procurement for/from the U.S. forces Japan, by dint of which Japan is said to have been able to completely recover from a war-devastated economy after World War II. 

In this sense, Japan was a relevant party to the Korean War.

This is why Koreans never ever reconcile with Japan. In fact, many of them will cheer if China and Russia bully Japan to death.

Japan should stay out of Korean peninsula matters.

Korea was truly a Cold War casualty occupied by both the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. and their ideological conflict between communism and capitalism. If you go to war, fight in your own territories.

Septim DynastyToday  05:16 pm JST

This is why Koreans never ever reconcile with Japan. In fact, many of them will cheer if China and Russia bully Japan to death.

That's questionable assertion. If Japan had not lost, or not stand against US, Koreans could have been living happy lives as ethnic Korean Japanese. However you are using "will" simple future tense, I note that is what many Koreans currently wish

Japan was used as a massive aircraft carrier during the Korean War, it was used as a main medical facility for those too injured to return to the fighting. Although it took no part in the actual fighting, it was involved in the war.

South Korean President Moon Jae In said in his speech at the U.N. General Assembly in September that he will seek to declare a formal end to the Korean War, naming China as a potential partner along with the two Koreas and the United States. He did not mention Japan.

Weird. Moon tried not to stimulate and avoid shedding the ight on the role of U.S.S.R without referring to Russia? Deja-vu for those behind Mao

Mainland CCP China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, all ethnically the same people are struggling for what would be what should be. Do South Korean people really want to have just formal ceremony.. without any fundamental change ?

What's the point?

Human history is not a series of stories but terrible reality, the best is to ask people lived those days who wouldn't lie

Fixing the status quo is the problem, not signing such formal papers. Abductions by the North or the annexation of Takeshima by the South are still open and contradicting issues. In addition, ignoring Japan and not letting or not considering it to take part at the negotiation table, shows obviously a not so very peaceful mindset, or does it to you?

Korea was truly a Cold War casualty occupied by both the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. and their ideological conflict between communism and capitalism. If you go to war, fight in your own territories.

The US and UN had a responsibility to defend South Korea. At the conclusion of WWII the US occupied the south and the USSR occupied the north. The UN was trying to negotiate the terms of a national election to chose a national leadership but the Soviets and their puppets in the Korean Workers Party would never agree to any of the terms offered them by the UN. Meanwhile the US kept the south more or less unarmed. South Korea had no combat air forces to speak of an no armor. The US had about 500 ground troops and these were not in combat formations but there for security and training of the Koreans. Meanwhile the North under Kim Joon Il had amassed a huge armored force and similarly large air force. When they swept into South Korea the US and UN really had an obligation to come to their defense as they kept them more or less unarmed and unprotected, never even imagining the North would stage an invasion. The US and UN screwed up leaving South Korea undefended so they had to fix their mistake. The US still has an obligation to protect South Korea as a result of the stalemate they left the Koreas with.

The US sent aircraft carriers and thousands of Army soldiers to Korea and Vietnam. Thousands of soldiers died in battlefields there. Those were not war? It seems to me the "police action" was no longer there.

The US Senate did not "declare war" - that's different from a president sending military to kill people and break things, at least legally, to US laws. Humans involved would definitely call it "a war" and the news would call it "war" too. That's the practical aspect.

The US Senate did not "declare war" - that's different from a president sending military to kill people and break things, at least legally, to US laws. 

A declaration of war by the US Congress was not considered necessary. The US was acting under the auspices of a UN Security Council Resolution authorizing UN member states to restore peace on the Korean peninsula. The same UN Security Council resolution designated the US to be the lead nation of the military effort. The specific resolutions are UNSC Resolutions 83 and 84.

SJToday  02:17 pm JST

Simply, the Japanese government fears a unified Korea.

If it becomes a big South Korea, no. But if it becomes a big North Korea, yes. And from what it is now, it looks like becoming the latter.