As South Korea and Japan picks a fight, don't expect Washington to care, says Robert E Kelly, professor at the Pusan National University.
BUSAN: Relations between South Korea and Japan are spiralling downward – again. This is a depressingly regular event.
My concern this time however is the lack of what usually serves as brakes on these types of spirals between South Korea and Japan, specifically the American administration and South Korean conservatives.The primary brake on these disputes has traditionally been the Americans. Indeed, the Americans have often been the informal umpire of this dispute, particularly for the South Korean side.
But with Donald Trump now in the presidency, it is unclear if he is willing to do the same. Trump is famously disdainful of US allies. His primary interest in Japan has been trade tariffs, car imports, and getting nominated for a Nobel Prize. In a curious reversal of traditional left-right political patterns, the South Korean right is the “internationalist” bloc, while the South Korean left is the nationalist one. It is the South Korean left, for example, which has emphasised the common “Koreanness” between North and South Korea and has sought various breakthroughs with Pyongyang over the decades.
Whatever the background issues, the point is that the South Korean right has often tried to maintain a basic working relationship with Japan and avoid an open breach over divisive, highly politicised historical issues. Former president Park, for example, sought to put to rest the comfort women dispute with a deal several years ago.The South Korean left rejects this outreach and emphasises, often with great militancy, Japan’s need to apologise continuously.
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