DP chief's warning about Japan sets off political firestorm

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung suggests that Japanese troops could end up stationed in South Korea again in a YouTube live stream Monday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Democratic Party (DP) chief Lee Jae-myung's warning that Japanese troops could end up stationed in South Korea provoked an outraged response from the presidential office and People Power Party (PPP).

On a YouTube live stream Monday, Lee commented on recent trilateral naval drills involving Seoul, Washington and Tokyo and the danger of getting too involved with Japan.

"While a day when the Japanese military invades the Korean Peninsula and hangs the Rising Sun Flag again is unacceptable to our people, and unimaginable," he said, "it could come true."

Lee criticized the holding of the naval exercises near the Dokdo islets in the East Sea, which Japan also claims.

He said the trilateral exercises help legitimize the Japanese military.

"The Japan Self-Defense Forces have recently conducted successive joint military drills, including near Dokdo," said Lee. "This is actually an act recognizing the [Japan Self-Defense Forces] as an official army."

Japan's right to wage war outside its borders is forbidden by a postwar pacifist constitution written by the United States.

Hawkish politicians have been working to revise Article 9, which states "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes" and that Japan shall not maintain land, sea and air forces.

Koreans are sensitive to the idea of Japanese troops near its territory because of the memories of Japan's brutal 1910-45 colonial rule.

Lee said Japan "invaded Korea and ruled by force" and has "not yet sincerely apologized for its history of aggression and has repeatedly claimed Dokdo as its own territory."

He said that South Korea can be "sufficiently protected" with the Seoul-Washington alliance and by its own defense capabilities.

Lee raised concerns over a comment by President Yoon Suk-yeol during a presidential debate in February suggesting that in the case of a contingency, the Japanese military could enter the Korean Peninsula. Lee was narrowly defeated by Yoon in the presidential race in March.

"If a South Korea-U.S.-Japan military alliance is established, the Korean Peninsula will become an outpost" he said, pitted against a North Korea-China-Russia military alliance and that "a new Cold War on the Korean Peninsula could happen again."

Yoon's presidential office defended the trilateral drills with Japan Tuesday.

"The North Korean nuclear and missile program is the biggest threat faced by Northeast Asia," said deputy presidential spokesman Lee Jae-myoung in an interview with CBS Radio. "If there is a fire, it's only natural for neighbors to join forces to put it out."

Lee brushed off concerns about the legitimizing of the Japanese military forces.

"If there is anything that Japan can help with, it is of course the president's job as commander-in-chief to not allow any gaps in military training," said Lee. "The South Korea-U.S.-Japan joint military exercises was a promise made by the defense ministers of the three countries during the Moon Jae-in administration."

PPP interim chief Chung Jin-suk also shot back against the DP chairman's remarks in a Facebook post Tuesday.

"Lee Jae-myung's claim that Japanese troops may be stationed in Korea and [former President] Moon Jae-in's claim that [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un promised denuclearization are the two biggest lies that undermine the security of South Korea," Chung wrote.

"Why did Joseon collapse?" Chung asked. "Was it was destroyed by Japanese invasion? Joseon rotted from within, that's why it collapsed. Japan never went to war with the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910)."

Chung's remarks on the fall of the Joseon Dynasty prompted an immediate backlash from DP lawmakers.

Park Hong-keun, DP floor leader, criticized Chung's remarks as a "pro-Japanese perception of history that makes you doubt your ears, and the greatest gaffe of all time from the leader of the opposing party."

Yoo Seong-min, a former PPP lawmaker, demanded Chung's resignation for his remarks that Japan never went to war with the Joseon Dynasty in a Facebook post Tuesday, describing the gaffe "as a vulgar remark playing into Lee Jae-myung's trap."

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]