Belated diplomatic maneuvers

The government recalled Korean Ambassador to Japan Choi Sang-Yong in connection with the Japanese government`s authorization of school textbooks containing distorted historical accounts. The government took such a diplomatic step with a view to ratcheting up pressure on Tokyo, on the one hand, and calming rising nationalist sentiment on the other. And there are growing signs that if the textbook question is not addressed satisfactorily, relations between the two countries would slide deeply into an abyss. In a nutshell, Japan should not suffer a big loss in going after a small gain.

For our part, the government failed to correctly appraise the situation and took a lukewarm posture in coping with the dismal development. Only after the government was harshly rebuked by the National Assembly and the mass media did it rush to take a series of countermeasures, including the belated recall of its ambassador from Tokyo. In other words, despite the mass media`s repeated calls for drastic counteractions against the Japanese move to distort history, the government maintained a ``cautious approach`` to the question. And in the face of ever-deteriorating public opinion, the government was belatedly taking tougher actions to grapple with the issue.

Such a low-key diplomatic stance appears to be influenced by the Tokyo declaration on Korea-Japan partnership issued during President Kim Dae-Jung`s official visit to that country in 1998. The Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry seemed to want to stick to the joint declaration and consequently failed to fully present the Korean position with regard to what is wrong and what should be corrected in the Japanese history textbooks. In the end, Japan reneged on the joint Korea-Japan declaration, while Korea upheld it. The joint statement is valid only when the two sides concerned respect and observe it.

Lately, Yoshikazu Sakamoto, professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo, lambasted the Japanese government, saying that the history distortions were an act of an international betrayal, undermining the spirit of the joint declaration and mutual confidence. The joint Korea-Japan declaration called for Japan`s voluntary admission of past wrongs and Korea`s willingness to refrain from taking issue with specific matters, leaving them to the Japanese government to address. At the same time, the declaration underscored the importance of Japan`s remorse over the past and of giving its younger generation a correct view of history. However, the professor pointed out that the Japanese side broke the agreement provided in the joint statement.

The Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry, nonetheless, failed to strictly cope with the Japanese breach of faith. While Japanese intellectuals and civic groups are questioning whether Japan is trying to bequeath the ``gene of aggression`` to its offspring, the Seoul government is haplessly maintaining a weak-kneed posture toward Tokyo. This is why the National Assembly members grilled the administration over the low-key diplomacy in comparison with the Chinese government`s protest statement in this regard.

From now on, the government ought to mobilize all available means in order to compel Japan to revise the distorted facts in the authorized history books. The rectification of erroneous history is essential to the maintenance of truly friendly and cooperative relations between the two neighboring nations.

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