Korean Peninsula Developments

[OPSSG]

I'm genuinely intrigued about this Japanese-South Korean hate thing. Can you explain a little bit about why they have beef with each other?

1. Anti-Japanese sentiment in Korean society has its roots in historic, ethnic and nationalistic sentiments. Since the 13th century, Japanese pirates raided the coastlines during Joseon dynasty— with the Korean language invented by the 4th king of the Joseon dynasty.

2. To be Korean is to learn of the history of the country and its history was that of Japanese torment of their Joseon way of life till World War II (under the then very cruel Japanese rule). Read up on the 200,000 comfort women and the never ending Korean desire to shame the Japanese.

3. The IJA was very cruel in WW II and 15 Feb every year is marked as total defence day in Singapore to help us remember — never again will we allow an invader to murder of 5% of our population in 11 days (from 21 Feb to 4 Mar 1942) to extract a ransom from the community

 

[2007yellow430]

1. Anti-Japanese sentiment in Korean society has its roots in historic, ethnic and nationalistic sentiments. Since the 13th century, Japanese pirates raided the coastlines during Joseon dynasty— with the Korean language invented by the 4th king of the Joseon dynasty.

2. To be Korean is to learn of the history of the country and its history was that of Japanese torment of their Joseon way of life till World War II (under the then very cruel Japanese rule). Read up on the 200,000 comfort women and the never ending Korean desire to shame the Japanese.

especially the Japanese treatment of Koreans during WW2 helped cause a lot of this animosity. Using Korean women for “comfort”then resisting any accommodation after losing the war certainly did not help. To this date that has left a very strong anger towards the Japanese in Korea And here in the USA with those of us who are descended from Koreans (I had a Korean immigrant as a partner for a while and his anger was evident).

 

[John Fedup]

Hey @John Fedup I certainly missed any Japanese or South Korean plan/rhetoric about nuclear weapons. Care to clarify?
Not asking for an essay or sources, just your short explanation.

As per comments already made, it is a combination of the NK threat, a long historical rivalry between Japan and Korea and now a possible US contraction of the US defence umbrella (somewhat lessened now by Trump’s replacement). Both Japan and SK have extensive nuclear expertise. With dozens of reactors operating for decades, Japan no doubt has a huge amount of fissile material.

 

[swerve]

especially the Japanese treatment of Koreans during WW2 helped cause a lot of this animosity. Using Korean women for “comfort”then resisting any accommodation after losing the war certainly did not help. To this date that has left a very strong anger towards the Japanese in Korea And here in the USA with those of us who are descended from Koreans (I had a Korean immigrant as a partner for a while and his anger was evident).

This is untrue. The Japanese armed forces had "comfort women" from every part of the Japanese Empire - including Japan - & the lands it occupied. It wasn't a uniquely Korean issue, & as far as I've been able to discover there was no particular bias towards Korean women. Nor were they only for Japanese troops. They were also for Koreans.

Nor did Japan "resist .. any accomodation". It negotiated agreements with assorted governments including South Korea in the 1960s & China in the early 1970s. For example a lot of money was given by Japan to the Korean government, to be used for compensation. IIRC it (or at least most of it) wasn't given to the women - but that was decided by the Korean government, headed by Park Chung-Hee. The Japanese government also apologised (though one can criticise the language of their apologies - they do not seem wholehearted).

BTW, during the Korean War & for long afterward the S. Korean government organised brothels for Korean & US troops, using the same recruitment methods as the Japanese during WW2. S. Korean women have sued the government over it. Korean politicians (some of them related to politicians from those days, including former generals) have tended to react by trying to divert anger towards Japan.

There's no doubt that very large numbers of women were forced & coerced into prostitution for the WW2 Japanese armed forces, but to some extent they tapped into existing channels - though I suspect their demand expanded those channels.

The real horrors were what happened to Chinese women, though.

But we are a long way off topic.

 

[2007yellow430]

This is untrue. The Japanese armed forces had "comfort women" from every part of the Japanese Empire - including Japan - & the lands it occupied. It wasn't a uniquely Korean issue, & as far as I've been able to discover there was no particular bias towards Korean women. Nor were they only for Japanese troops. They were also for Koreans.

Nor did Japan "resist .. any accomodation". It negotiated agreements with assorted governments including South Korea in the 1960s & China in the early 1970s. For example a lot of money was given by Japan to the Korean government, to be used for compensation. IIRC it (or at least most of it) wasn't given to the women - but that was decided by the Korean government, headed by Park Chung-Hee. The Japanese government also apologised (though one can criticise the language of their apologies - they do not seem wholehearted).

BTW, during the Korean War & for long afterward the S. Korean government organised brothels for Korean & US troops, using the same recruitment methods as the Japanese during WW2. S. Korean women have sued the government over it. Korean politicians (some of them related to politicians from those days, including former generals) have tended to react by trying to divert anger towards Japan.

There's no doubt that very large numbers of women were forced & coerced into prostitution for the WW2 Japanese armed forces, but to some extent they tapped into existing channels - though I suspect their demand expanded those channels.

The real horrors were what happened to Chinese women, though.

But we are a long way off topic.

what you say maybe true, but it isn’t how the Koreans perceived it. This is enlightening: Conflict Between South Korea and Japan Surges Again With Court’s ‘Comfort Women’ Decision

 

[Big_Zucchini]

@swerve What you're saying might be true. My knowledge is insufficient to judge.
But just because the problem was more common than previously described, does not diminish its significance.
The holocaust is probably the perfect example of everything that is wrong in humans. 6 million died in the most brutal ways. Does that make the deaths of tens of millions of other people any less significant and horrible? Not in the slightest.

To be clear, I am in no way accusing you of downplaying the significance and horror of using innocent women as sex slaves, but perhaps you're arguing here something that shouldn't be argued.

 

[ngatimozart]

@swerve What you're saying might be true. My knowledge is insufficient to judge.
But just because the problem was more common than previously described, does not diminish its significance.
The holocaust is probably the perfect example of everything that is wrong in humans. 6 million died in the most brutal ways. Does that make the deaths of tens of millions of other people any less significant and horrible? Not in the slightest.

To be clear, I am in no way accusing you of downplaying the significance and horror of using innocent women as sex slaves, but perhaps you're arguing here something that shouldn't be argued.

Swerve is right and so are the others. The Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy were very cruel and committed many war crimes against POWs, conquered populations etc. My uncle fought against them in the jungles of the Pacific Islands and he hated them until the day he died. If you really want to know what they were like, read up on the Rape of Shanghai that occurred in 1937.

Getting back to the SK - Japanese issue, the Japanese would prefer that their conduct during their occupation of the Korean Peninsula was conveniently erased from history. It and their war crimes are not taught as part of their history in their schools is also problematic.

 

[Feanor]

This is untrue. The Japanese armed forces had "comfort women" from every part of the Japanese Empire - including Japan - & the lands it occupied. It wasn't a uniquely Korean issue, & as far as I've been able to discover there was no particular bias towards Korean women. Nor were they only for Japanese troops. They were also for Koreans.

Nor did Japan "resist .. any accomodation". It negotiated agreements with assorted governments including South Korea in the 1960s & China in the early 1970s. For example a lot of money was given by Japan to the Korean government, to be used for compensation. IIRC it (or at least most of it) wasn't given to the women - but that was decided by the Korean government, headed by Park Chung-Hee. The Japanese government also apologised (though one can criticise the language of their apologies - they do not seem wholehearted).

BTW, during the Korean War & for long afterward the S. Korean government organised brothels for Korean & US troops, using the same recruitment methods as the Japanese during WW2. S. Korean women have sued the government over it. Korean politicians (some of them related to politicians from those days, including former generals) have tended to react by trying to divert anger towards Japan.

There's no doubt that very large numbers of women were forced & coerced into prostitution for the WW2 Japanese armed forces, but to some extent they tapped into existing channels - though I suspect their demand expanded those channels.

The real horrors were what happened to Chinese women, though.

But we are a long way off topic.

Except that Park Chung-hee was hardly a true representative of the Korean masses. He came to power as a result of a military coup, where he suppressed a democratic student uprising. He then became an open military dictator and graduated to be a "president" (in 1963) that makes Putin appear to be a paragon of democracy by comparison. He oversaw murders of political opponents and repressions against those seeking to critize him or his regime. He was also a collaborationist with the Japanese occupation government in Manchouko during WWII (where he did quite well for himself), which is where he may have picked up their modus operandi. And he did all of this with US support. He may not have been a US puppet (though it's entirely possible that he was, I just don't know enough to take a position here) but to say that he was a representative of the Korean people and therefore the decisions made by his government somehow reflect on the country as a whole (and thereby de-legitimize current calls for reparations or amends on this issue) is questionable at best.

He was a traditional Cold War dictator, supported by the US to oppose the spread of communism. As such he made compromises on issues like settling the question of Japanese reparations for forced prostitution, in the interests not of the Korean people but of the geopolitical and geostrategic considerations governing the Cold War.

 

[swerve]

@swerve What you're saying might be true. My knowledge is insufficient to judge.
But just because the problem was more common than previously described, does not diminish its significance.
The holocaust is probably the perfect example of everything that is wrong in humans. 6 million died in the most brutal ways. Does that make the deaths of tens of millions of other people any less significant and horrible? Not in the slightest.

To be clear, I am in no way accusing you of downplaying the significance and horror of using innocent women as sex slaves, but perhaps you're arguing here something that shouldn't be argued.

Perhaps. It's something where one has to tread carefully, & be careful with emphasis.

What I object to here is a Korean claim (which as far as I can see is stoked up by Korean politicians for internal purposes) that it's a peculiarly Korean issue, a crime committed by Japan against Korea. It's both worse than that (the crime was much bigger than the Korean focus on Korea would make it seem) & in some aspects, more nuanced, e.g. not exclusively done by Japanese. It seems to me a bit like, say, the French treating the Holocaust as something done by Germans to France, ignoring what happened elsewhere & denying French collaboration.

So, I see the Korean attitude as minimising the crimes committed against others (particularly in China, where I think it was the worst), which gets up my nose, & to some degree dishonest, used to divert anger away from those Koreans who were complicit, including those who presided over the continuation of the system within Korea during & after the Korean War.

That pisses me off.

 

[swerve]

Except that Park Chung-hee was hardly a true representative of the Korean masses. He came to power as a result of a military coup, where he suppressed a democratic student uprising. He then became an open military dictator and graduated to be a "president" (in 1963) that makes Putin appear to be a paragon of democracy by comparison. He oversaw murders of political opponents and repressions against those seeking to critize him or his regime. He was also a collaborationist with the Japanese occupation government in Manchouko during WWII (where he did quite well for himself), which is where he may have picked up their modus operandi. And he did all of this with US support. He may not have been a US puppet (though it's entirely possible that he was, I just don't know enough to take a position here) but to say that he was a representative of the Korean people and therefore the decisions made by his government somehow reflect on the country as a whole (and thereby de-legitimize current calls for reparations or amends on this issue) is questionable at best.

He was a traditional Cold War dictator, supported by the US to oppose the spread of communism. As such he made compromises on issues like settling the question of Japanese reparations for forced prostitution, in the interests not of the Korean people but of the geopolitical and geostrategic considerations governing the Cold War.

All true - but many recent Korean politicians (e.g. Park's daughter, Park Gyeun-hye) try to ignore or gloss over not only what Park (an officer in the IJA) did, but all the other collaboration by Koreans, & the continuation of some Japanese practices in post-war Korea, & blame everything on the Japanese. That annoys me.

They simultaneously complain (with justification) that past Japanese crimes in Korea or against Koreans are downplayed in Japan, while doing exactly the same about the crimes of Korean collaborators - including what Koreans complicit with the Japanese did in Manchukuo, the rest of China, etc.

 

[Feanor]

All true - but many recent Korean politicians (e.g. Park's daughter, Park Gyeun-hye) try to ignore or gloss over not only what Park (an officer in the IJA) did, but all the other collaboration by Koreans, & the continuation of some Japanese practices in post-war Korea, & blame everything on the Japanese. That annoys me.

They simultaneously complain (with justification) that past Japanese crimes in Korea or against Koreans are downplayed in Japan, while doing exactly the same about the crimes of Korean collaborators - including what Koreans complicit with the Japanese did in Manchukuo, the rest of China, etc.

While despicable, this follows a sad pattern of historic revisionism in many countries. Nationalistic attitudes have been on the rise in a number of countries, and trying to re-write history, especially WWII history, has been a repeated pattern. Everyone is eager to play the victim and downplay their own role in perpetrating the misdeeds.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

In many countries the Covid-rules and regulations are quite strict and do not always make sense, sometimes they are just ridiculous. But this article shows us that in North-Korea the situation is really extreme.

North Korea: Russian diplomats leave by hand-pushed trolley

The diplomats had no choice as Pyongyang has banned trains from leaving as part of Covid measures.

www.bbc.com

 

[John Fedup]

Perhaps things are very grim in NK. One would think they could have arranged a better exit plan for citizens of a country that is on a very short list of friends.

 

[ngatimozart]

The exercise would have done them some good.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

The exercise would have done them some good.

This was ofcourse a briliant idea of the Great Leader to give foreign diplomats the opportunity to get free body-exercises in this time of strict lockdowns.

 

[John Fedup]

The exercise would have done them some good.

The exercise would do dear leader some good as well.

 

[ngatimozart]

The exercise would do dear leader some good as well.

That may be true, but who's going to tell Dear Leader so? If they do they have a high probability of having a high velocity introduction to a AAA round.

 

[OPSSG]

2021 Korea Update No. 1

1. On 10 Mar 2021, it was reported that the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will visit Japan and South Korea next week as the administration seeks to boost regional alliances. On 17 Mar 2021, Blinken and Austin will attend a US-Republic of Korea Foreign and Defense Ministerial hosted by the South Korean foreign minister Chung Eui-yong and Minister of Defense Suh Wook.

2. Prior to the visit, on 7 Mar 2021, US and Korea reached a new, six-year deal at talks, where Seoul agreed to a "meaningful increase" in its share under the new Special Measures Agreements (SMA), ending two years of standoff. Driven by former U.S. President Trump’s repeated claims that South Korea was failing to pay its fair share, the outgoing administration initially demanded a fivefold increase in Seoul’s contribution, before asking for a 50% increase over last year — around $1.3 billion. South Korea maintained that a 13% increase from the previous year was its best offer.

3. South Korea's contribution to the cost of U.S. troops is described in the 1966 Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), the two countries have signed SMAs (10 times since 1991, usually to cover multiple years). Under the last 1 year SMA, reached in February 2019, South Korea agreed to increase its contribution to just under 1.04 trillion won (US$921.5 million), an 8.2% hike from the previous SMA.

4. Exercise Dong Maeng (meaning "Alliance") was first introduced in 2019, and is intended to be a smaller scale version of the bigger exercises Foal Eagle and Key Resolve. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea and the US decided to move forward with a 9-day, Mar 2021 military exercise after “comprehensively taking into consideration the COVID-19 situation, the maintenance of the combat readiness posture, the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of peace”. This Mar 2021 joint military exercise will be smaller than usual because of the coronavirus pandemic. Though scaled back, the combined exercises are still likely to infuriate North Korea which calls them a “rehearsal for war”.

5. One objective of this Mar 2021 exercise will be for the preparation for the full operational capability test, which is necessary for the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) from the US to South Korea. Since the 1950-1953 Korean War, the US military has retained the authority to control both South Korean and US forces in case of another war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula.

​

(a) Eventual OPCON transfer is important, as without it, a war on the peninsular is an American led war fought mainly with Korean divisions or Corps. The Korean Army is 7 Corps strong, numbered 1 to 8 (skipping the use of the no. 4, as it sounds inauspicious).​

​

(b) After the transfer of OPCON to the Koreans, any war on the peninsular is an Korean war fought with American force contributions. Given the size of the Korean Army, it is only logical that their own general lead the Ground Operations Command (created by combining the Korean Army's First and Third Army commands.​

​

(c) Currently, there are about 28,500 US troops stationed mainly in Camp Humphreys, South Korea. These US troops serve as a trip wire to deter North Korea.​

6. On 1 Mar 2021, the IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi stated in his introductory statement to the Board of Governors that, since his last report to the Board on 3 Sep 2020, “some nuclear facilities in the DPRK continued to operate while others remained shut down.”

​

(a) Regarding North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Center, he went on to state there were “recent indications of operation of the steam plant” that serves the Radiochemical Laboratory. Recent commercial satellite imagery indicates the coal-fired steam plant is, indeed, in operation again after a nearly two-year hiatus.​

​

(b) Smoke was observed emanating from the plant’s smokestack at various times from late-Feb and early Mar, suggesting that preparations for spent fuel reprocessing could be underway to extract plutonium needed for North Korea’s nuclear weapons. However, this could also mean simply the facility is being prepped to handle radioactive waste.​

​

(c) While it is noteworthy when there are obvious signatures of plant operations, such as the smoke emission at the steam plant, without other evidence of reprocessing activity, this signature cannot be viewed as definitive.​

 

[OPSSG]

2021 Korea Update No. 1

7. In April 2018, as part of the Panmunjeom Declaration, the two Koreas agreed to work together to reduce sharp military tensions, avoid war, and try to build an enduring peace regime. Despite the 2018 declaration, the threat from North Korea has not abated — a fact North Korea pointedly reminded the international community of when it blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in Jun 2020.

8. The new North Korean missiles (SRBMs, MRBMs, IRBMs and ICBMs) serve as bargaining chips in any negotiation, and they subtly push U.S. and South Korean elites back to diplomacy. Without them, North Korea is more easily subject to coercion and isolation. Collateral to these developments, President Moon Jae-in, has made obtaining OPCON of Korean-American joint forces a major goal of his administration. We should also note that in Dec 2020, PAC-3 deliveries to South Korea became complete, which adds to a new onion layer, with the deployment of THAAD in South Korea.

9. There is some American concern that Seoul may be determined to forge ahead with inter-Korean projects and engagement regardless of Washington's position or international sanctions. As there was no mention of North Korea in Biden's recent big foreign policy speech, this fact has created some anxiety in the Moon administration; over President Moon Jae-In’s unrealistic Sunshine 3.0 Policy on the Korean Peninsula. Moon has one year remaining in office, before he will be replaced by a new president following elections scheduled for March 2022. His top foreign policy priority continues to be improving inter-Korean relations.

​

(a) South Korea is one of the few countries in Asia that has both long-standing historical ties with China and a critical alliance with the US. This two-sided reality puts pressure on Seoul, as the US-China rivalry intensifies and spills over to affect trade and technology policy. As Asia’s fourth-largest economy, South Korea exported goods worth over US$ 136 billion to China in 2019, comprising a quarter of its total exports.​

​

(b) However, it should be noted that an Oct 2020 Pew global poll showed that 83 percent of South Koreans had no confidence that Chinese President Xi Jinping would do the “right thing in world affairs.” In 2020, 3/4 of South Koreans have a negative view of China, compared to less than 1/3 back in 2002.​

​

(c) Seoul has the three-point principle on such a regional security consultation format as long as it abides by international norms, a senior Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters on the condition of anonymity. To get a seat at the table, South Korea is even thinking of joining the Quad but the Japanese will want to keep them out.​

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1369631951120785411

10. Given the above, the US National security team has to weigh its options as the North Korean threat rises with its growing nuclear missile capability.

​

(a) Pending a review of US policies on North Korea, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the approach to North Korea could involve more sanctions or unspecified diplomatic incentives. The Biden administration’s review of its policy towards North Korea is expected to be completed "within the next month or so," a senior official of the administration told Reuters.​

​

(b) South Korea has its own national security —with the ambition of mediating a smaller deal consisting of a partial North Korean denuclearisation in exchange for easing American sanctions; which I believe Japan would oppose. While this South Korean goal may yield moderate gains in appeasing the North Korean regime and temporarily reducing inter-Korean tensions, it would likely leave Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile technology largely intact. This, in turn, could allow the Kim regime to continue wielding its nuclear aggression and maintain leverage over the US and Japan in the ongoing nuclear negotiations.​

​

(c) There are signs, that Washington is considering a more realistic approach towards North Korea. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has suggested that nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang could follow the model used with Iran in the 2015 nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In other words, the U.S. and North Korea could start with an arms control deal that would cap and begin to roll back Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal. In return, the US and the international community would offer North Korea economic goodies - including sanctions waivers. And here is where the Moon government sees an opportunity to launch its preferred sustainable economic engagement process.​

 

[Ananda]

한미 미사일 지침 해제! 그 배경과 의미는?

문재인 대통령과 조 바이든 미국 대통령이 21일(현지 시각) 첫 정상회담에서 한·미 미사일 지침 해제에 합의하면서 우리나라는 42년 만......

bemil.chosun.com

Just see this on Bemil Chosun sites. Talk on recent meeting between both ROK and US President. This talk on US agree for ROK developing more than 800km balistic missiles and 1000km cruise missiles.

This in my opinion can be a game changer if ROK pursue on Regional Balistic Missile (IRBM) range class, cause it will bring China into the equation. Not there's indication ROK will do it yet, but it's certainly within ROK capabilities.

Japan clearly already have capabilities even to build ICBM if they choose too. We can see that on Japan satellite launch capabilities. ROK also already on the satellite launch capabilities (off course not in the range of Japan yet), but still capabilities for IRBM is there.

Will US let both it's major allies in East Asia free hand now to build and install those capabilities ?