President’s Abrupt Warning to Japan May Stir Controversy with Japan

The critical remarks President Roh made in his speech marking the March 1 Uprising about Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit of a controversial war shrine appear to be a premeditated warning.

The level of strength of his wording itself is the strongest since the November 1995 referral by then-President Kim Young Sam to the Japanese as spoiled. In a speech at the House of Representatives of the Japanese Diet in June of last year, President Roh resorted to benign wording when he criticized the Japanese passage of the Emergency Measure Act and said, “I respectfully urge you and many other leaders to exercise courageous leadership.” He did not mention at all about Japan in his speeches marking the March 1 Uprising and the Liberation Day of August 15 last year.

President Roh hasn’t directly responded to a series of pejorative remarks by Japanese political leaders about Japanese textbooks’ glossing over colonial history and the dispute over Dokdo, a rocky island in the East Sea.

The fact that President Roh himself has revised the text of the speech to raise the level of wording is probably the result of his own well-calculated diplomatic maneuvering.

Diplomatically, tensions have run high over the Korean government’s issuance of a postal stamp featuring Dokdo. On February 27, Prime Minister Koizumi confirmed his intention to visit the Yasukuni Shrine honoring Japan`s war dead including convicted war criminals of the Second World War. All these prompted him to touch the issue of Japan’s rightward shift.

The government has remained dissatisfied as its own efforts to improve relations with Japan, such as an additional opening of the local market to Japanese popular culture, was not well received across the East Sea as the rightward shift was getting starker in Japan.

Some analysis also appears convincing that the action and reaction in the two countries, each facing upcoming elections, are causing an uplifted effect on the level of their political wording.

“President Roh’s remarks touched the issue that should be mentioned at least once,” said a Japan watcher. “Political leaders in Japan are making pejorative remarks in waves ahead of the July House of Councilors elections,” he said, raising concerns. “A series of politically motivated remarks aimed at peddling public opinion ahead of the April elections in Korea could severely hurt the two countries’ relations.”

The reason why the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced that President Roh’s remarks were not aimed at Prime Minister Koizumi but represented the official position was allegedly to preempt such concerns. The ministry later retracted it. Concerning his remarks, the president did not consult with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the National Security Council. This explained why he used non-diplomatic terms such as, “I advise Japan.”

jnghn@donga.com srkim@donga.com