Japan, South Korea’s defense white paper public backlash…

(Tokyo = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Ho-joon Lee Se-won = The Japanese government publicly opposed the content of criticizing Japan in the ‘2020 White Paper on Defense,’ published by the Korean Ministry of Defense on the 2nd.

In particular, the defense white paper describes that the defense relations between Korea and Japan suffered difficulties due to the Japanese political leaders’ provocation of Dokdo (claiming sovereignty), the flight of a close threat to the Korean ship by the Japanese patrol aircraft in 2018, and the’one-sided press release misleading the facts’. He expressed his will of protest through diplomatic channels.

Japan’s Defense Ministry officials called the Korean embassy in Japan and said, “We cannot accept it for our country (Japan). We are very sorry,” Kyodo News reported.

At a press conference on the day, Ishikawa Takeshi, a press officer at the Ministry of Defense, said, “A content that is incompatible with Korea’s position on the sovereignty of Takeshima (Japan’s claim to Dokdo) was described.” Cooperation between Japan-Korea (Korea-Japan) and Japan-US-Korea (Korea-US-Japan), including the surrounding situation, is important. We will strongly demand appropriate response from the Korean side so as not to damage cooperation.”

It seems somewhat unusual for the Japanese government to express dissatisfaction with the defense white paper outright in its own media.

On January 15, 2019, when the “2018 Defense White Paper” was released, Japanese Secretary of State Yoshihide Suga deleted the statement that Korea shares basic values ​​of liberal democracy and market economy with Japan from the Defense White Paper. I have responded, “I will refrain from commenting” on what has been done.

The Japanese media assessed that the expression of Japan in the 2020 Defense White Paper was downgraded from a’companion’ to a’neighbor country’ as a side against the Japanese defense white paper released last year.

The Sankei Shimbun reported on the day that the technology for Japan in South Korea’s defense white paper was “a partner to cooperate with” in the 2018 edition, but in the 2020 edition, it was changed to “a neighboring country to cooperate with”.

The newspaper analyzed that there seems to be a side against the deletion of the phrase’promoting defense cooperation with Korea in a wide range of fields’ in the defense white paper released by the Japanese government in July last year.

While reporting the change in Japanese expressions in the Kyodo Newspaper’s defense white paper, an official from the Ministry of Defense of Korea said, “(The expression for Japan) determined that neighboring countries are valid” because of the Japanese government’s measures to strengthen export restrictions to Korea in 2019. He said he explained.

The news agency also mentioned that the expression “Korea and Japan shares basic values ​​of liberal democracy and market economy” in the 2018 edition of the defense white paper, which was first published since the inauguration of the Moon Jae-in government in 2017, was also removed.

NNN, a Japanese private broadcaster news network, also reported in a Korean defense white paper that the expression of Japan “retreated” from a partner to a neighboring country.

As with the defense white paper two years ago, the NNN diagnosed North Korea as “it seems to be trying to avoid stimulus to North Korea and seek resumption of inter-Korean dialogue.”

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