Old Dog, Same Old Tricks

It looks like I spoke too soon when I expressed surprise at the South Korean government having restrained from turning the DPRK's latest stunt into an opportunity for Japan-bashing.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun talked about his views on the history of Japan's wartime atrocities for 40 minutes during talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Seoul on Monday, forcing them to abandon a joint statement, entourage sources said.

Roh refused Abe's request to issue a joint statement condemning North Korea for its alleged nuclear test, according to the sources. The South Korean leader then talked for 40 minutes about his views on the history of Japan's atrocities during World War II and visits by Japanese politicians to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine.

Now here's a man who knows how to keep his priorities straight! Who's got time to discuss a nuclear threat when we can spend 40 minutes rehashing old history?

During the meeting, South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon handed a memorandum to Roh, urging him to discuss a joint statement with Abe. The sources said this suggested there is a perception gap between the president's office and the ministry over the country's interpretation of history and its North Korea policy.

South Korean officials subsequently suggested that the two countries issue a joint statement on North Korea's alleged nuclear test and interpretation of history, a proposal rejected by Japan.

Hmm, "I'll condemn the aggressive dictatorship to my north if and only if you'll go along with my jaundiced, Korea-as-perpetual-victim view of history" - what a gracious proposal from such a mature statesman! I wonder what on Earth could have gotten the Japanese to reject such a deal ... Roh Moo Hyun is the epitome of consistency, or, rather, of consistent stupidity.

Meanwhile, things are very different in Beijing, where adults (albeit cynical, cruel, powerhungry, bloodthirsty adults) are in charge.

A Japan-China joint press release was completed one hour prior to its announcement following the summit talks between Abe and Chinese President Hu Jintao on Sunday.

Amazing, isn't it, that China, which is much less threatened by North Korea than is South Korea, is much more politically and economically significant than is South Korea, and suffered far more from Japanese imperialism than South Korea (which actually participated in said anti-Chinese imperialism) has been able to display a level of maturity on this occasion far beyond anything to be expected from the Blue House. Here we have the difference between Chinese and Korean ultranationalism in a nutshell: with the Chinese government it is nothing but a tool to be cynically deployed as domestic convenience dictates, while the vast majority of Koreans at all levels really do seem to believe the self-flattering xenophobic nonsense they spout all the time, so much so that they can't even put it aside for a moment in order to advance genuinely important national interests.