S. Korea warns Japan on scope of collective self-defense

SEOUL (Kyodo) — South Korea has delivered to Japan its stance on Japanese Prime Minister Shizo Abe’s controversial move to revise his country’s Constitution to permit collective self-defense, laying out three principles, a Seoul daily reported Monday.

“We recently delivered a message that well reflects the South Korean government’s position and concerns over Japan’s exercising of collective self-defense,” a senior South Korean diplomatic source told the JoongAng Ilbo on Sunday.

“The message can be interpreted as ’a warning’ to Japan, so that the discussion of collective self-defense in the country can be conducted in an appropriate way,” the source said.

The oral message was delivered amid concerns in South Korea over Abe’s move, at a time when bilateral relations have soured over territorial and historical disputes dating back to the 1910-1945 period of Japanese colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula.

According to the newspaper, the first principle states that the debate over the rearmament of Japan should be carried out in a way that can contribute to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asian community.

The second principle insists any future Japanese military involvement on the peninsula be limited to extra assistance made at the request of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and that Japan should be strictly prohibited from carrying out proactive military actions.

The third principle holds that Japan’s gaining the right to exercise collective self-defense should not go against South Korea’s Constitution, which considers North Korea as part of the Republic of Korea, as South Korea is formally known.

“The bottom line of the message is that South Korea will consider Japan’s unilateral military action against the North as an attack on the South,” the source was quoted as saying.

Abe has expressed eagerness to revise the Constitution, which limits overseas activities of the Self-Defense Forces, and upgrade the SDF to a military that can act more freely outside Japan alongside those of countries such as the United States.

Kyodo News, November 25, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131125p2g00m0dm050000c.html

 S. Korea rebukes Japan for calling independence hero ’criminal’

SEOUL/TOKYO (Kyodo) — South Korea on Tuesday rebuked Japan’s chief government spokesman for branding anti-Japanese independence hero Ahn Jung Geun as a “criminal,” amid a row over Seoul’s push to have a statue of Ahn erected in China.

“It’s deeply regrettable to use the term ’criminal’ in referring to national hero Ahn Jung Geun, who sacrificed his life for national independence and peace in the Orient,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai Young told a press briefing.

He said the use of such a term by Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga at a press conference earlier Tuesday in Tokyo “can never be used if Japan thought about what Hirobumi Ito did during Japan’s imperialistic days and what Japan did to its neighboring countries.”

He was referring to a four-time prime minister of Japan and the first resident general of Korea, who was assassinated by Ahn at Harbin in northeastern China in 1909, at which time Korea was a Japanese protectorate. Japan annexed Korea the following year and ruled over it until 1945.

Cho called on Japanese political leaders to conduct “humble reflection on the past history of aggression and try to better understand the sentiments of the peoples from the countries that suffered aggression.”

Earlier in the day, Suga criticized the proposed erection of a monument to Ahn in China, where the Korean independence activist and pan-Asianist is also regarded as a hero, saying the move “is not good for Japan-South Korea relations.”

The plan was revealed when South Korean President Park Geun Hye met with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi on Monday in Seoul. Park expressed appreciation for China’s cooperation with the plan, according to the South Korean presidential office.

Kyodo News, November 19, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131119p2g00m0dm073000c.html

South Korea President Park rules out summit with Abe

SEOUL (Kyodo) — President Park Geun Hye ruled out a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in an interview broadcast Monday, saying the Japanese government has not changed its position on wartime history regarding South Korea.

“If Japan continues to stick to the same historical perceptions and repeat its past comments, then what purpose would a summit serve? Perhaps it would be better not to have one,” Park said in an interview with the BBC aired ahead of her visit to Britain, beginning Monday, as part of a European tour that also includes France and Belgium.

“The fact is there are certain issues that complicate (that relationship),” she said.

“One example is the issue of the comfort women. These are women who have spent their blossoming years in hardship and suffering, and spent the rest of their life in ruins,” Park said, referring to the South Korean women forced into sexual servitude under the former Japanese military.

Park, who took office in February, has not held a formal meeting with Abe. The two have only had brief conversations on the sidelines of regional meetings.

Japan and South Korea continue to clash over their differing views on Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

The two countries also dispute the sovereignty of a South Korean-controlled group of islets in the Sea of Japan called Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan.

Kyodo News, November 4, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131105p2g00m0dm031000c.html