politics

Japan, South Korea urge North Korea to avoid provocation

27 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

27 Comments
Login to comment

In reply, same request will come from NK !

0 ( +0 / -0 )

At least one situation where South Korea and Japan share the same interest and South Korea puts it's gigantic inferiority complex to the side for a moment.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Japan: "We DEMAND that you give us the unconfirmed-but-people-we-think-you-took abductees, prove that Yokota Megumi is still alive, and single-handedly repair all problems in Asia. In return, we're not going to give you ANY aid, and are going to push the US and UN to push you. Oh, and please no provocation in response to this."

SKorea: "No more aid until you dismantle. Oh, hehe.... nuke us? well shucks that would be... uhhh... look, we've gotta take a hard line because that's how we got in... but hey, just because you're starving to death doesn't mean you have to get provocative or anything".

Sorry, but being provocative yourself and then asking the recipient to just lay down and take it is a bit much. I'd love to see NKorea buckle, but it's not going to be at the behest of nations trying to put it under their thumbs, it's going to be, if they feel backed into a corner, in what they feel is a blaze of glory.

My advice is to drop some of the rhetoric and go back to the tables, with promise (not to be reneged, Japan!) of aid. NKorea may well AGAIN go back on its word, but it's a bit better to have them take even baby-steps than for things to get worse.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Dr. Jones: "It least one situation where South Korea and Japan share the same interest and South Korea puts it's gigantic inferiority complex to the side for a moment."

I hope you're not suggesting Japan has no inferiority complex, or less of one than Japan... that would be humourous.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Dr Jones: so Japan not responding beyond empty words to serial kidnappings of it's citizens has less of a complex than the South Koreans who have shot North Korean spies? Oh please.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

spudman: No kidding! This from a country that cried because they were the eleventh country called by President Obama, and cheered with fanfare when Hillary said she would visit them first (until she dissed the LDP and Aso, that is).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I've never really understood why NK has such a hard time coming clean on the abductee issue. Is it really so hard to just come out and say, my country kidnapped these people, here are their bodies, or here have them back... I mean hell, they've already admitted they kidnapped a bunch of people. They allowed some of them to return, though admittedly they demanded them back afterwards. Whats so hard really about just letting the rest go?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Molenir: "I've never really understood why NK has such a hard time coming clean on the abductee issue. Is it really so hard to just come out and say, my country kidnapped these people, here are their bodies, or here have them back... I mean hell, they've already admitted they kidnapped a bunch of people."

It's pretty simple, really.

"They allowed some of them to return, though admittedly they demanded them back afterwards. Whats so hard really about just letting the rest go?"

Exaclty! They let some go, and instead of that being a sign of willingness to make amends by both countries Japan seized it as justification for sanctions and to send relations to an all-time low. It would be akin to saying to a criminal whose crimes are past the statute of limitations (in Japan, anyway), "Look, just come out and admit what you've done, and it'll all be in the past," and when he or she does so suddenly trying to admit it as evidence in a criminal trial you start up.

NKorea DID come clean, at least in part, and we don't know how much of the rest is true or not. The whole 'return the others' is bogus for two reasons: 1) Japan has insisted some hundreds of nationals have been abducted, one of which turned up a few years ago in Japan after admitting having simply run away from everything. In other words, how many were actually abducted is a point for major scrutiny, and Japan likes to put a whole lot more on the list than seems likely. 2) While I doubt that the others died as NKorea said they did, I don't really doubt they are dead. It seems kind of pointless to keep them over there under wraps, and more likely they executed them than say, Megumi dying in a landslide, or whatever it was. There is zero proof that they are still alive.

Anyway, you raise a good question, but the answer seems pretty simple to me; Japan would NEVER rest if NKorea released more information that Japan could use to unite support by the radicals here, and instead it would increase tensions and most certainly deny any further aid. It would be lose-lose for NKorea to spill the beans, even if there are any to spill. I can pretty much assure you that if they DID return any further remains (true ones, not a bunch of other people's) or even living bodies, Japan would NEVER say, "Well, thanks. Okay, here's some aid. Now let's drop the evidently closed case and get on to the nuclear issue".

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Urge away boys, Kim is crazy and saber rattling is how he stays in the news. Would Kim ever really attack the South or Japan, I doubt it. The guy is an ego mainiac and his threats and bluster keep him famous and feed his ego.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

his threats and bluster keep him famous and feed his ego.

Exactly.

Ignore Kim. Why any nation continues to coddle North Korea is beyond me. So the South finally figured out they were helping whack job Kim feed his army with emergency food? Good. Embargoes & sanctions on all trade should have been implemented long ago. Let the Chinese deal with NK.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

North Korea will never start a war. China will not permit them. Anyone who believes the "sea of blood and fire" crap is falling for the North Korean extortion line hookline and sinker. Nothing irks North Korea more than to see South Korea, Japan and the United States work together against them. And all the North Korea supporters always gather to rant about how "scary" North Korea is and to criticize Japan.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

smith, if NK came clean about any of the abductees they should be able to come clean about them all. Rewarding a partial disclosure and expecting more disclosure is exactly want NK wants - to blackmail people into providing aid to prop up their bankrupt (financially, morally, legally) regime. This is the typical crap that NK dishes out on uranium, plutonium, nukes, not lauching missiles. It's rather amazing to see the whole leadership of a country pitch a fit, but there you are.

There is also the issue of lil Kim being the main architect of the abductions and the terrorist acts committed by the regime. We wouldn't want the dear little leader to be shown to have blood on his hands, would we?

You can't blame the neighbors for NK's behavor. They've dug themseles this hole. They want to pitch a fit? The only way to deal with children having a temper tantrum is to ignore them unti they stop.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If Japan hadn't colonised Korea and then left the nation in ruins, perhaps North Korea would not exist.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If Japan hadn't colonised Korea and then left the nation in ruins, >perhaps North Korea would not exist.

Wrong. If the USSR hadn't decided to set up a communist state to oppose the democratic south, it wouldn't exist. Besides, Japan didn't leave Korea in ruins.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yo. Hustlaz up North need to stand down. They need the help of the world and the need to come clean on the durty bizness they been putting forth 4 decades. Then we can bring hustlaz in and reform the country, make korea one again. It's for the best.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ossan ... I suggest you read a little history before you characterize the early S, Korean state as democratic. One thing I have never understood about this is that many in Japan say they were forced to go to war against the west because of sanctions against them by the west, but cant see that if N. Korea took the same attitude they would start a war with Japan because of the japanese sanctions.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

North Korea is a legacy of Japanese colonialism. You can't pin everything on the Russians.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ossan ... I suggest you read a little history before you characterize >the early S, Korean state as democratic. One thing I have never >understood about this is that many in Japan say they were forced to go >to war against the west because of sanctions against them by the west, >but cant see that if N. Korea took the same attitude they would start a >war with Japan because of the japanese sanctions.

We all know the history of the ROK. When I said "Democratic" South I meant in the sense that the United States was backing it, as opposed to the DPRK backed by the USSR. Please read the words in the context that they are used. There's no comparison. Japan was hit with an embargo on oil and steel prior to WWII with no other available sources. Japan doesn't supply NKOrea with anything approaching that degree of fundamental importance to maintaining the North Korean economy. NKorea can get oil and steel and anything else it needs of that nature from China. What excactly are the Japanedse sanctions on North Korea going to cover? Cash earned from Pachinko Parlors?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

North Korea is a legacy of Japanese colonialism. You can't pin >everything on the Russians.

Utter nonsense. South Korea is the legacy of Japanese colonialism. Not North Korea.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

North Korea's "great leader" is nothing more then a pathetic dictator who is guilty of everything from genocide against his own people to kidnapping foreigners. The only recognition he should be given is an Interpol warrant for his arrest and transfer to an international human rights court. As for his threats to "test a missile capable of reaching the USA" go ... well remember his test in the late 90's when NK claimed success in hitting a target with it's latest missile? The target was the Pacific Ocean! Maybe he needs a reminder that the USA already HAS a missile more than capable of wiping his luxury estate, swimming pool, and wine cellar right off the face of the planet.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

NK is the thorn in the side for all of Asia and when the rest of Asia starts to take less notice of it, it then decides to chuck its little tantrums. All regional neighbours of the country should band together as one voice, Ask them WTF? As neighbours we can respect our differences, make ammends, co-operate and become a mature looking region that would make the rest of the world start to appreciate further and respect Asia in a light that can truly be a regional cornerstone of the world not to mention the world economy, for the future generations as well. Because under the current way things are NK makes itself and the rest of the region look childish which especially includes Japan.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

China will change North korea, and not allow them to do anything.

China also needs to tame North korea economic woes, by teaching them how to follow China's economic boom ways via capital building china style.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ossan and Calico: "smith, if NK came clean about any of the abductees they should be able to come clean about them all. Rewarding a partial disclosure and expecting more disclosure is exactly want NK wants - to blackmail people into providing aid to prop up their bankrupt (financially, morally, legally) regime. This is the typical crap that NK dishes out on uranium, plutonium, nukes, not lauching missiles. It's rather amazing to see the whole leadership of a country pitch a fit, but there you are."

Well, let's just hope you guys are right, because you don't have the greatest record of it, and it would sure be one horrible 'I told you so' in this case.

As for why they won't come clean, I stand behind my reasoning; they came clean in order to see Japan's reactions towards making progress in normalization, Japan freaked out. 'Coming clean' even more, if there's anything at all left to tell (and they say there's not), will make Japan all the more whiny and upset, throwing the hissy fits you say only NK is capable of.

If NK tests a ballistic missile capable of reaching the continental US, don't scream to me about what to do.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well, let's just hope you guys are right, because you don't have the >greatest record of it, and it would sure be one horrible 'I told you so' >in this case.

Well smith, the only thing I've consistently said over the years is that NKorea can't be trusted, that their "negotiations" including all the walk-outs were simply a way to delay any action to stop their development. I was proven correct on thisafter their test, and am still eing proven correct now. My record of being correct oin NKorea has been 100%. Of course it hasn't been very difficult.

If NK tests a ballistic missile capable of reaching the continental US, >don't scream to me about what to do.

No one is going to be screaming anything, other than perhaps yourself. NKorea can test what they want. We can wipe NKOrea off he face of this earth. Our simply telling Chinas that we are going to do so is enough for China to replace the NKOrea govt.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well smith, the only thing I've consistently said over the years is that NKorea can't be trusted,

Pray tell, WHO can? I cannot remember exactly what it was at this moment, but not that long ago the U.S. made a promise to N.K., reneged, and then, weeks later, kept the promise. During the whole thing, N.K. kept their side of the bargain as far as I remember. Hopefully specifics will come to me soon.

So, no reason to single out N.K. as being untrustworthy. Even when they started to open up, they got a very good reason to clam right back up again, just as Smith points out. They are reacting to us just as much as we are reacting to them. Its a vicious cycle that will not be broken until SOMEBODY grows up, and recognizes and tolerates the childishness of the rest.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I HATE kim jong il NK are such cowards! they threraten with Nuclear weapons & to SOME south koreans thats OK. They claim to be indipendent then cry to the UN they need help. & aid is sent to them from, USA Japan Southkorea. everytime they are hit with Sanctions they complain there being neglected & tell their people that we are starving on purpose. China! needs to apply pressure But they Dont. they Brag that their country is becomeing "more Rich" chinese people have the attitude. Let them be communists & starve, while we become Rich. they just dont care.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

easy as cake north korea launches, norad confirm missile launch roger intercepters 2 threw 5 launched eastern usa intercept abm missile launch confirmed,relatitorly us presidient issues retalitory 2 trident d3 peacemakers launch from silos from the contineential usa 2 icbms away interceptors knock north korean missiles out the sky us nukes hit north korea us pacific naval fleet then moves in to invade game over

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites