smokehard

On Monday July 14, 2008 the Japanese government started getting ready for the 2012 (2012!!!) school year by unveiling new and improved non-binding guidelines for middle school teachers and textbook publishers. This is to say, in four whole years, teachers and textbook publishers could, if they felt like it, look at the guidelines to draw up curriculum.

Just after the guidelines were made public, Korea declared war on Japan because bitching about guidelines that mention the Lioncourt Rocks (map) is much, much easier than confronting very serious domestic problems.

There is a very good reason why the Lioncourt Rocks are disputed. The area is rich in things both countries like to eat. Forget fighting a war over oil, god, or gold, in Northeast Asia wars are faught over sea slugs and seaweed.

Although the islets themselves are barely habitable, the Exclusive Economic Zone surrounding them has rich fishing grounds and possible reserves of natural gas. As of 2006, the expected reserves have not been found. A wide variety of fish as well as seaweed, kelp, sea slugs, and clams are located around the Lioncourt Rocks. Major fishery catches in the area are squid, Alaskan Pollock, codfish, and octopus. There are 102 species of seaweed, although many of these have no economic value. (Link)

Now that you know how valuable and significant the Lioncourt Rocks are, take a look at what those blasphemous guidelines said!

As expected, the claim to the Korean islets [were] couched in reference to the Kuril Islands, which Japan is disputing with Russia. Although the Kuril Islands “are our inherent territory, they are illegally occupied by Russia….It is necessary to deepen understanding about our country’s territory in a way identical with the Kuril Islands by mentioning that there exist differing assertions between our country and Korea over Takeshima [Dokdo/Lioncourt Rocks]”. While they express no direct territorial claim to Dokdo, they imply illegal occupation by Korea in saying the islets should be treated “in a way identical with the Kuril Islands.” (Link)

THOSE MOTHER FUCKERS!!!! SHAME ON YOU BARRACK OBAMASAN! SHAME ON YOU!!! Can you even believe that shit? If someone said “there exist differing assertions between you  and me over [anything]” I would unleash Rambo IV levels of violence. ZOMG I am so fucking angry right now.

Ohmmmm. Ohmmmm. Ohmmmm. *lotus pose*. Ok, I am now calmer. Thanks Buddha.

In response, the South Korean government took stern measures to “cement” their claim to the Lioncourt Rocks.

President Lee Myung-bak will recall South Korea’s ambassador to Japan Wednesday in protest of Tokyo’s decision to define South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo as its territory in guidebooks for history teachers.

The Ministry of Defense said it has ordered troops to reinforce the defense of the islets.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said it would conduct extensive research into the ecosystem, fishing resources and maritime environment in the sea surrounding Dokdo.

The education minister will also send a letter of protest to his Japanese counterpart

The South Korean police chief will call the head of the contingent stationed on Dokdo to give words of encouragement and instruct on the reinforcement of maritime defenses.

South Korean academic foundations will hold a series of forums in Seoul to call international attention to the past record of Japan’s historical and territorial distortions. (Link)

That’s it? That’s all the South Korean government is doing about Japans flagrant “act of agression”? If I were Lee Myung-bak, i’d have sent squadrons of f-16’s and a fleet of Dokdo class amphibious assault ships to the region!

Lee Myung-bak has once again proven he weak in the face of crisis. Yes, he is weak. And do you know why he is weak? Because he is proving himself the same as all before by latching onto this issue in order to improve his ratings. Having just ended (hopefully) over a month of marches, protests, and clashes over the reimportation of US beef into Korea, the Korean government has decided to take “stern action” over a non-binding reference the Japanese government has made over islands that are recognized as Korean by the international community. Clearly, the Lioncourt Rocks are a non-issue used by the Korean government to stoke the flames of pro-government nationalism. What in the hell is Japan going to do? Invade the Lioncourt rocks and plant a flag? Do Koreans actually believe that their soveriegnty is at risk? It is truly absurd to think so, and I hope I am right when I say that the vast majority of Koreans are smarter than that.

How is it that US beef and some “suggested” Japanese guidlines cause so many Koreans to burn flags and protest in the streets for weeks on end? How is it that papers like the Hankyoreh, which publish completely apeshit-crazy material regarding the US Beef/Mad Cow issue (Here and Here) says, in response to the South Korean tourist who was shot dead by a North Korean soldier while she walked on a beach near Mount Geumgang in North Korea, “We in the South must not.. respond too emotionally.”

There are some serious priority problems when a nation (on the whole) gets worked up into a tizzy over issues that really do not have an immediate effect on the wellbeing of a nation.

Why aren’t those left leaning Koreans (they made up most of the anti-US beef protests) making a fuss over the fact that “the top 10 percent of wage earners in the country were paid 4.51 times more than the bottom 10 percent” or that “the portion of low-wage workers in Korea was…the highest [among OECD members]“?

It makes no sense to me that with the rapidly rising costs for food and consumer goods, not to mention the impending real estate crash, that the Korean public focuses on issues that have little or no bearing on their immediate situation.

By not facing up to what is actually important, Korea might once again look to the international community for help, like it did after the war and after the financial crisis. Such a proud nation clearly cannot stand on its own two feet for very long if it requires international help everytime it falters. In fact, this years negative FDI standing may well reverse course very soon, because in Korea, FDI skyrockets when Koreans fail.

“The opening to FDI during and after the [1998] crisis was out of necessity. Korea was down and needed the money. …When Korea recovered, it changed back. Korean people may disagree but this view is widely shared in the international community.” (Link)

(FDI into Korea: 1998/$5.41B,  1999/$9.33B,  2000/$9.28B,  2004/$9.25B,  2005/$6.31B,  2006/$3.59B, 2007/$1.58B,  and negative FDI in 2008.)

Perhaps this is the government’s plan. Let Korea slide into economic despair and when the population says “do what you need to do to improve the economy”, Lee will have the support he needs to implement all of the plans he had when he was ushered into power late last year. Nevertheless,

“Korea may never become a truly open economy. An open economy is a matter of choice,…Its foundation is to treat all businesses, foreign or local, the same. The mere fact that people always talk about foreign versus local means that the economy cannot be truly open”. (Link)