Thursday January 14^th 2016

Huffington Post Korea

By Gim Byeong-cheol

 

“Comfort Women” who were abused by the Japanese military have declared the

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agreement between Japan and Korea over their case to be invalid. According to Yeonhap News  a press conference was held at the Korean Comfort Women Issue Measures Committee shelter and Sharing House residence for “Comfort Women” victims of the Japanese military, opposite the Japanese embassy. At the conference the victims revealed that the government had not asked them for their input about the proceedings and they were “completely opposed” to any agreement being made with the Japanese government.

 

 

Gim Bok-dong, 90, said: “The government needs to solve the issue of ‘Comfort Women’ but we don’t know why they chose an impractical solution like this… we are not going to take any of [Japan’s 10 billion yen]. Our monument to the ‘Comfort Women’ [situated directly opposite the Japanese embassy], which we have paid for, every penny, was not made for the two governments to come to a [cosy] agreement.”

Ee Ok-seon, 89, said: “Hiding the victims and trying to silence them has to stop. It cannot go on any longer.” Today [Wednesday the 13^th of January] around 800 police officers have been deployed to the weekly demonstration. [Surviving‘Comfort Women’ and supporters protest every Wednesday in front of the embassy.] Another atteendee at the conference in front of the statue said “this agreement between Korea and Japan is humiliating and will certainly rouse the Korean citizenry to action”.

Analysis: while Japanese and Korean lawmakers may hope that this agreement brings a definitive official conclusion to the so-called “Comfort Women” issue, clearly many (if not most) of those directly involved are not happy with the agreement which has been reached. After the ordeal these women were put through, it’s hardly surprising that an official agreement many decades later is unsatisfactory to them. It’s easy to criticise the sincerity of the Japanese apology, too; as recently as 2014 Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was still casting doubt on whether the imperial Japanese army had engaged in this type of abuse (here’s a KoreaNews story from October about a Korean-American student who had publically challenged him on the issue in May) and Abe has a long history of pandering to far-right Japanese groups. While he is currently politically strong enough to anger Japanese right-wingers by making this agreement, many Koreans feel he will quickly turn back to anti-Korean sentiments if and when he needs to. Park Geun-hye’s government, meanwhile, may have made a mis-step by failing to consult the victims and their support organisations about the agreement. With this agreement, however, the way is now much clearer for Korea and Japan to begin closer sharing of military information in light of North Korea’s renewed belligerence. This news piece also highlights the deep importance of symbolic gestures in North-east Asian politics; Japan finds the weekly demonstrations and statue highly embarrassing and for years has been putting significant pressure on Park’s administration to remove the statute and curtail the demonstrations.

January 8^th 2016

Video at link

KBS News

Chinese environmental authorities have begun an inquiry into radiation pollution on the border between North Korea and China after North Korea’s nuclear test. Also, it KBS News has checked and confirmed through withdrawals [from the bank] that North Korea’s Joseon Gwangseon Bank is continuing to operate, despite the

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nuclear testing.

Dandong abuts two rivers on the border with North Korea, more than 420km away from the [North Korean] nuclear testing site, Punggyeri in North Hamgyeong Province, [Chiense] investigative environmental personnel have mobilised inspection equipment to measure [radiation] and check that everything is alright in response to public pressure. The Chinese environmental agency is taking the affecting influence [of the tests] very seriously but is only releasing very little information to the public.* A Chinese environment agency investigator said, in response to being asked what they were doing: “we are measuring.” [The Chinese investigator is questioned and replies in Chinese in the video.]

Through revealing [“재재로”, literally “talkative” or “garrulous”] withdrawals it was discovered that North Korea’s Joseon Gwangseon Bank was again operative. The building security guard, when asked if the building housed the bank, said [again in Chinese] “the North Korean bank is room number 8 on the thirteenth floor.” When asked if anyone was present he said “maybe there’s someone up there, I’ve seen one or two people”. Thus also through the security guard the continued operations of the Joseon Gwangseon Bank were determined. One of the bank’s managers responded to a crowd of reporters with verbal abuse: “Stop all of those silly remarks which [you] have been making.” [While the actual content of this “verbal abuse” is mild, it was delivered via the casual speech style, which is extremely rude to use in professional situations or with anyone but close friends.]

[Working] amidst this very same menacing atmosphere is a North Korean trader. [He believes] that the nuclear tests are natural and fair. “What influence [did the test have on the Chinese environment]? Whether we trade or don’t trade [with China] our nation needs to be self-sufficient and self-reliant. And what?”

Meanwhile at the North Korean border posts Hwanggeumpyeon island on the Yalu river on the barbed-wire boundary between the two countries, no changes have been detected.

*The phrase used in the original is “말을 아꼈습니다” – “being thrifty with words”

Analysis: How much more will China take? Appetite for continued support of North Korea within Chinese power circles must be rapidly approaching rock-bottom. With a plummeting stock market the last thing Beijing needs is pointless belligerence from its misfit neighbour. Perhaps this latest round of testing is in response to some internal instability in the North Korean administration. Regardless, expect to see the usual strong denunciations and equally typical lack of any concrete action from South Korea, Japan, the US and the UN.