Japanese media unite vs. Korea

Even Japanese media usually sympathetic to Korea joined an avalanche of criticism of President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday after his televised tirade against Japan’s claims to the Dokdo islets, known as Takeshima in Japan.
Asahi Shimbun, which is generally liberal in its editorial outlook, said that President Roh was evidently unable to control his rage, interpreting the speech as a signal that there could be no improvement in bilateral relations between Korea and Japan for the rest of his term. The newspaper said that if territorial issues were thrust to the forefront of bilateral relations, the two nations would face a dilemma in addressing other issues.
Mainichi Shimbun criticized Mr. Roh for inflexibility, while Yomiuri Shimbun said, “Roh has good reason to leave the matter to the World Court if he is so self-assured about the legitimacy of his country’s stand in the dispute.” Japan has proposed settling the dispute there twice in the past; those offers were rejected by Seoul.
In Seoul, Ban Ki-moon, the foreign minister, took aim at the Japanese media for their consensus that Mr. Roh’s speech was driven by domestic Korean politics, an assessment that the JoongAng Ilbo said had also been made in an internal Japanese government document. “The reason for the speech was the meritless territorial claim by the Japanese government on the Dokdo islets and the aggressive actions that followed. To dismiss it as a domestic political stunt is inappropriate.” Seoul has demanded that Japan confirm the accuracy of those reports, which Tokyo has unsurprisingly declined to do.
Echoing Mr. Roh’s strong but vague pronouncements, the minister vowed to take “all necessary measures” to strengthen Seoul’s claim to the islets and said Seoul would take “stern measures” if Japan took further steps to challenge Seoul’s territorial rights in the sea between the two countries.
Some government officials said privately yesterday that despite the ballyhoo, the status quo in the area around the islets was unlikely to change any time in the near future.

by Brian Lee