S Korean leader to attend China's celebrations of victory over Japan in WWII

My question was not how this benefits China, but where is S. Korea's strategic advantage in cosying up to China? If she's going to China just to piss off the Japanese that is not an example of strategic foreign policy.

Pak foreign policy in regards to China and U.S. is best described as コウモリ外交 derived from Aesop's Fables of The Bat, the Birds, and the Beasts. Bat=South Korea

The turn of events in these last two years have been funny. While NK's Kim's relations with China has deteriorated, SK's relations with China elevated to almost an alliance.

North Korea established and maintained as a result of Communist China. South Korea was almost in danger of losing her presence thanks to Communist China. This was essentially the Korean War and yet we see this type of action by Pak. It's comical.

CGB SpenderAUG. 22, 2015 - 11:24AM JST @Jeff And how does this relate to paying an official state visit to China, which is no friend of S. Korea, but remains the "best friend" N. Korea has in the world?

China may not be the best friend of SK but they have a great interest to widen the gap between SK and Japan.

My question was not how this benefits China, but where is S. Korea's strategic advantage in cosying up to China? If she's going to China just to piss off the Japanese that is not an example of strategic foreign policy.

What China does not say or show is that in order to defeat Japan, almost all of the assistance came from Allied powers such as the USA. USA supplied both the Communist and the Nationalist forces with the armaments and the supplies which eventually helped to defeat Japanese forces. Not to say that what ever infrastructure the Japanese built for China and other Asian countries also contributed to the Japanese defeat. It also is well known that the same infrastructure left by the Japanese contributed to the rather quick economic recovery of those countries, including China, after the war. China could not have unified their territories with out such infrastructure put in place by the Japanese.

Of course they will never say that in the process, they killed more of their own Chinese people in the name of communism than the entire death toll attributable to WWII.

Interestingly, something similar is happening in the Middle East where ISIL is using everything supplied and left by western forces, including what was supplied by the USA and multitude of infrastructures that Japan assisted those nations in building over the decades after the war.

"What about the Koreans that fought on Japan's side? They were among things some of the most brutal prison guards and were the guards on the Bataan Death March. They were guards in unit 731. So they will attend in what capacity?"

Yes, you are right. Koreans were forced to be sex slaves, forced laborer, forced to join the Japanese army/savages.... Thus, Koreans really need to celebrate. Koreans and the rest of the world should thank the US for nuking Japan. Nuking it contained the savages/Japan Army.

China & South Korea enjois them very much

China has an overwhelming advantage of influences over the Korean peninsula no matter the north or the south like or not liking China, this is nothing Japan could matched. And if uncle sam believes his over generous stationing troops in the south could change the Chinese position over there, that is really a miscalculation. The culture of China and Koreas were very similar, America has nothing but daily demands SK people gratitudes her 50000+ casualties which is a very resentful feelings for Koreans

@Jeff And how does this relate to paying an official state visit to China, which is no friend of S. Korea, but remains the "best friend" N. Korea has in the world?

China may not be the best friend of SK but they have a great interest to widen the gap between SK and Japan. Beijing has an interest in undermining the US position in South Korea. Thus, fostering anti-Japanese feelings in Korea, by emphasising the evil that is Japan, helps China by preventing closer relations between these two American partners in north-east Asia (South Korea and Japan).

Once again, the plan was, Park will attend the ceremonies, but will not attend the Chinese military parade.

But don't you think she should?? After all, the founding fathers of South Korea today was based on the defeat of Japan by the Provisional Republic of Korea Government. This is in your constitution. It must be true!!

Once again, the plan was, Park will attend the ceremonies, but will not attend the Chinese military parade.

@itsonlyrockandroll"only despots"

Then leaders of India, Armenia, Azerbaijan are despots too, by your logic. Troops from the mentioned countries took part in the celebration.

CGB SpenderAUG. 21, 2015 - 10:40PM JST Park is fighting on all fronts to try staying popular, be it stirring up patriotism against Japan or saber-rattling with their neighbors in the north.

And how does this relate to paying an official state visit to China, which is no friend of S. Korea, but remains the "best friend" N. Korea has in the world?

If She goes to that FACADED Parade and cozy's up to Communist Chinese then WE - The Unitef States, needs to protest her actions and pull ALL U.S. Forces OFF The Korean Peninsula.

She is going to start a Regional Conflict and besides why are we going to risk American lives so Ms. Park can satisfy her ego?

This Woman is a Delusional Tyrant and if she is not careful and if she does not pick her friends wisely, she will unbalance the Status Quo and she might just start the next Asian Regional Conflict.

South Korea you can do better than Ms. Park.

It's no secret that NKorea has not been happy with President Park, whom they have in the past so graciously referred to as "whore", coddling up to China. It looks to me like NKorea deliberately created a reason for Park not to go to China.

She had to decide to go because she was so afraid of China. But I guess now she has a good reason to cancel the plan, Development between SK and NK this evening will continue and the president of S.Korea got a good reason to stay in Seoul a while. NK is now preparing to launch Nodong missiles while deploying artillery to the front line. Lucky Park! They say 5PM tomorrow will be the deadline.

Imagine that. NK giving Park an escape route.

http://www.chosunonline.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/08/21/2015082101792.html

Personally, Park should go for it's only natural that Korea be part of China once again. A couple thousand year habit is so hard to break.

This bit of news struck a nerve to many people here I see, I love it!

The level of childishness behavior is off the roof.

Park is fighting on all fronts to try staying popular, be it stirring up patriotism against Japan or saber-rattling with their neighbors in the north.

First the brutal occupation by Japan, and, second, the Korean conflict between China and the U.S.

You're forgetting the first and most long termed influence, being a vassal state of China which it seems as if they are reverting back to. LoL

I guess Ms. Pak will be revered as 2nd Queen of Independence.LoL

Hi Papi2013, it makes sense I don't believe for one moment South Korean President Park Geun-hye is amongst friends attending, and Christopher Glen I certainly understand the essence behind you comments.

Park is not attending the Chinese military parade.

No, Merkel missed the goose stepping VE 'celebration' parade and traveled to Moscow on 10 May to lay a wreath at a war memorial. Only despots Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov and Turkmenistan’s Gurbanguly showed up......

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, pretty please think again, this parade will be a atrocious spectacle of nationalism and war anniversary propaganda, alongside ghoulish ghastly array of global despots, dictators, and tyrants. ..

sir; I think this is a pointless gesture ! I thought Korea was wanting to be friends to Japan !

No, Merkel missed the goose stepping VE 'celebration' parade and traveled to Moscow on 10 May to lay a wreath at a war memorial. Only despots Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov and Turkmenistan’s Gurbanguly showed up......

She had to decide to go because she was so afraid of China. But I guess now she has a good reason to cancel the plan, Development between SK and NK this evening will continue and the president of S.Korea got a good reason to stay in Seoul a while. NK is now preparing to launch Nodong missiles while deploying artillery to the front line. Lucky Park! They say 5PM tomorrow will be the deadline.

Merkel went to Russia for VE celebrations (which remember Germany's defeat) So why is Park being lambasted for doing the same vis-a-vis China? She may well be doing it to snub Japan. Considering Abe's recent lacklustre speech - and his wife's visit soon after to Yasukuni shrine, I wouldn't blame her

"China assisted North Korea and fought against South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, while American-led U.N. troops fought alongside South Korea. China and South Korea now have booming trade ties."

Yet again why Park cannot be trusted and why the US should not shed blood for SK or any other Asian country. The US builds the country by securing the areas and then the payback is be in bed with anti US entities.

The US aided South Korea when N. Korea and subsequently CHINA stormed through S. Korea to begin the Korean War.

Perhaps South Korean President Park Geun-hye has forgotten that many of the US forces were stationed in JAPAN and used the bases here to help repel the North Koreans and Chinese.

Japan was an ally that helped the US assist S. Korea. Japan and S. Korea were on the same side in that horrible conflict.

I think the S. Korean people and their government have lost sight of who their real enemies are.

People, like nation-states, form relationships when each side offers something of value to the other. If I was abusive to my partner in the past, and then turn around and say, "Bad things were done in the past that I deeply regret, but it never really happened and I'm not responsible anyway so you should just get over it", then I kinda lose all credibility to later complain that they are taking an interest in someone else. If I want to keep a close, mutually-supportive relationship, I have to show I actually support them by you know, like genuinely caring when they are upset at me for something I did wrong.

@Hongo

I hear you, bro.... ; )

@lucabrasi comes with typing on an i-Phone with hands the size of dinner plates.

@Hongo

"averse".

Fantasists one and all. The communists spent half their time fighting the nationalists, and they were also not too adverse to shopping each other to the Japanese during factional conflicts. Meanwhile, I wonder if President Park Geun-hye will suffer about of temporary amnesia, not remembering the fact that her own father was a Quisling of the highest order who was a "well respected" Japanese army officer (who later whitewashed his CV, became President, and slaughtered a number of university students). Yes, she comes from a family firmly rooted in democratic principles (cough).

Then again, I don't begrudge the rank-and-file of Chinese and Korean society being still miffed with Japan and its atrocious behavior before and during World War 2. What upsets me is this perversion of history.

obviously president Park is very furious over Mr Abe's lengthy and unsincerely apology and she decided to revenge and she might spilt on the graves of japanese warcriminals and their decendents.

This President Park don't really know who her friends are. She has made so many mistakes in recent years, and is definitely a very WEAK President. Now that North Korea the "bulldog" of China is giving so much trouble to South Korea, is her memory that poor? Who supported North Korea to invade the South during the Korean War? China wasn't it? This President Park wants to kowtow to imperial Communist China. If she does that ,South Korea will have no real friends to protect her. Perhaps she is kowtowing to China so that economically & security she wants to make the Chinese her with financial and defence /security mentor. Let the people of South Korea decide, and if need be get/elect a new President that knows the country's regional geostrategic interests well. If this President Park attends the end of WW II Communist Parade together with Putin and North Korea's Kim or his representative, be rest assured she would have brought her country into the adversary's camp.

I wonder which dictator or despot South Korean President Park Geun-hye is considering be seated next too. The mind boggles into the topic of conversation, BBC highlights will be strictly come goose-stepping.......

Chinese Yasukuni Jinja in the form of a parade?

The South Korean president has made her country completely irrelevant in international politics through her breathtaking insanity and stupidity.

It is not correct to say that Japan "colonized" Korea. It would be more accurate to say Japan "annexed" Korea

Currently Japan exports $60 billion to SK, while SK exports $25 billion to Japan. It's a one way trade for Japan.

In 2014, SK exported $25 billion to Japan while importing $43 billion of Japanese goods. SK's trade deficit with Japan has been steadily decreasing since 2010.

SK largely depends on Japanese components and other material like rare gas to maintain SK industries so SK

That was the old days. SK's Japanese component imports now only make up 18% of total Japanese imports. That dependence is now reduced considerably. SK now has its own formidable component industry that competes with Japan, in China, Vietnam, US, and elsewhere. SK racked up over $100 billon trade surplus in component industry for two years in a row. I think this is exactly why S.Korea and Japan don't see each other as critical partners. They're competing with each other, and feel they don't need each other that much.

I think this is SK's way to make US kowtow to SK.

What Black Sabath and sfjp330 said. Park is in between. For South Korea, the trade dependence on China is tremendous. South Korea is China's number one import nation. South Korea sends more products to China, than either US and Japan. South Korea does not want to jeopardize that. On the other hand, for South Korea, Japan is getting less and less important trade partner. South Korea may not like China's politics, but in the end, money trumps all.

sfjp330

It has always been an one way street between SK and Japan in terms of finished products. The amount of finished products coming to Japan has always been at minimum level. On the other hand SK largely depends on Japanese components and other material like rare gas to maintain SK industries so SK is not going to sever ties with Japan even if they want to.

Frankly if Park is bent on continuing to pay homage to China we really need to rethink risking American lives on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea wouldn't even exist today of it weren't for China. Korea has historically played both sides of the coin for it's own benefit and they're still at it.

Today, South Korea no longer sees significant importance to Japan. So for South Korea, good relations with Japan is not a priority. The bilateral trade has reduced significantly. In the last ten years, Japan had fifty percent reduction in import from South Korea. Currently Japan exports $60 billion to SK, while SK exports $25 billion to Japan. It's a one way trade for Japan. Even Hyundai no longer sells cars in Japan. Do you see many Samsung phones? South Korea sees China as a future growth, and they will focus on increasing trade and improve their bilateral relations and cooperations. Money talks and South Korea will bow.

Ok. I don't like this. But, y'all gotta admit:

ROK is between a rock and hard place here.

With this decision, the current SKorean government is clearly showing its current and future loyalties and focus – it has decided to fulfill its traditional historical role as a vassal of China, much as it did in the middle 19th Century – paying tribute to its seniors in Beijing.

But what does this say about the ROK-US Security Alliance? In my view, it is time for a reassessment. China is the ROK’s largest trading partner, and the ROK government is ever more taking policy positions and supporting Chinese initiatives (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, etc.). One has to ask the question, why is the US stationing 20K troops and obligating itself to help defend a nation that is increasingly politically and economically aligning itself with a country that invaded it 60 years ago?

It’s time for the US to review the ROK-US Alliance with a critical “cost-benefit” eye – current figures estimate the US spends $10 Billion a year to support defending SKorea. Perhaps it’s time to suggest, similarly to what it’s doing in the political and economic spheres, that the ROK rely on its Chinese patron to guarantee its security also.

This is interesting. Despite concerned implication of this Chinese celebration as anti-Japan showcase, criminal activities in the South China sea, Communist China wasn't even in the fight of WWII... President Park decides to attend while most heads of states oppose: is she expecting Xi to apologize for Chinese atrocities when that country attacked the South on behalf of the North?

Kenny IyekawaAUG. 21, 2015 - 08:42AM JST ^ most were Koreans of Japanese descent...so I doubt they will attend

Huh? I think you mean ethnic Koreans from Japan, though that's wrong too as their numbers prior to the war were miniscule with most being sent to Japan during the war to work in factories and mines. These are the great-grandparents of most the "Koreans" (who speak no Korean and have never been there) in Japan today.

YuriOtaniAUG. 21, 2015 - 08:22AM JST What about the Koreans that fought on Japan's side? They were among things some of the most brutal prison guards and were the guards on the Bataan Death March. They were guards in unit 731. So they will attend in what capacity?

The IJA conscripted a lot of Koreans in the later years of the war. I have no idea whether they were as brutal as some of the notorious Polish guards at the Nazi concentration camps.

As there really is no love lost between the Middle Kingdom and Hanguk, I have no idea why she would acknowledge the Chinese in this manner. It is easier for me to imagine Japan coming to the aid of S. Korea than China doing so. Further, though the relationship has cooled in recent years, China remains N. Korea's primary patron.

@YuriOtani

What about the Koreans that fought on Japan's side?

Is China inviting her to demanding an apology, or to thank her for them killing KMT Nationalists?

Such confusing loyalties.

I don't know which is worse, Japan and it's people and government denying that it ransacked Asia during WW2, SK playing the victim to Japan colonialism all the while being brutal to Allied POWs and fighting along with Japan during WW2, or China, saying it was Mao at many of the "Big Three" meetings held during WW2 and not Chiang Kai Shek and the Nationalist.

To me, all three (including NK) need to look in the mirror and realize they all had something to do with WW2 on the bad side and get over it with each other.

^ most were Koreans of Japanese descent...so I doubt they will attend

What about the Koreans that fought on Japan's side? They were among things some of the most brutal prison guards and were the guards on the Bataan Death March. They were guards in unit 731. So they will attend in what capacity?

Will Paku apologize to the Chinese?

I hope she brings a big photo of her Dad. An officer in the IJA Kwantung Army, enjoying the comfort stations and killing Chinese. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chung-hee#/media/File:Park_Japan.JPG

S Korean leader to attend China's celebrations of victory over Japan in WWII

Will she have her own float?