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article critical of Japan's rightwing's militant stance toward NKorea

Sukotto

先輩
9 Jul 2003
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hysteria over N Korea & China

This article (also) appeared in The Japan Times, Jan. 18, 2005.


The Japanese Rightwing's Contrived Hysteria ......... by Gregory Clark

Japan seems headed for yet another bout of emotional confrontation with North Korea and China.



The latest anti-North Korea anger concerns the fate of Yokota Megumi, a girl that Pyongyang admits it abducted from Japan in 1977. Pyongyang authorities had claimed she had since died, but DNA examination of the bone they produced to prove her death suggests it is not hers. Images of Yokota's grieving parents calling for economic sanctions against North Korea have flashed across the TV screens for weeks. The rightwing media call for even stronger measures to punish and isolate North Korea for its "insincerity."



But if the bone does not belong to Yokota, doesn't this suggest that the woman could still be alive and active? Instead of grief, there should be relief. Instead of sanctions, there should be more contacts to get to the truth of things.


Pyongyang's officials have already admitted that they have a problem with their "special agencies" -- North Korea's all-powerful spy outfits. The conclusion should be obvious: At least some of the abductees, including maybe Yokota, have had to work in the agency's spy-training outfits, and cannot be released now for fear of jeopardizing spy operations.



Further escalation of tension with Japan makes it certain that the "special agencies" will want to hold on to the missing abductees a lot longer. This seems to have registered with some of the Japanese handling negotiations with Pyongyang, including Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro. But in the media and among ambitious rightwing politicians such as Deputy Secretary General Abe Shinzo, the scenarios said to be needed to counter North Korea's "insincerity" range from national mobilization and preventive attack to obtaining the nuclear arms and rockets needed to counter North Korea's alleged military threat if sanctions are imposed.

rest of article:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=17&ItemID=7104
 
Last edited:
uh. This is kinda a useless post isn't it?
Just posting an article. And probably adds almost nothing to the forum.
Maybe even just wastes space?
Over at another forum, a few of us do this, probably too much.

I guess I was trying to spark a debate or discussion rather,
about whether North Korea is actually a threat. Or just one
manufactured by our governments for political purposes,
and just lapped up by corporate media that are too cheap
to do have in depth discussions that cannot fit in between
two commercials - in the US anyway. I'm not too familiar
with the Japanese mass media.

my view:
I would assert that N Korea is just a boogie man.
Taking a look at the 90s. N & S Korea were making peace
all by themselves. But then US Secretary of State Madeline
Albright had to quick make a trip there to stick our country's
nose in their. N & S were having cultural exchanges, family
trips to visit those people haven't seen in decades, even
increased business ties. Then came W Bush's "axis of evil"
line... What?ever

The Iraq war just showed the world, if you don't have a nuke
you will get invaded. If you have the deterant of a nuke,
you seem to be safe. (Plus Iraq - the state - was disarmed
over the last decade. Iraq the citizens seem not to be)

Elimination of nukes would be a good thing. Lead by example
my home country of the US, if you (we) would. I happen to
agree with Tibetian spiritual and political leader, and famous guy,
the Dhali Llama, that allowing some countries to have nukes
and not others is rather undemocratic.

And so is the UN Security Council over the General Assembly.
The most recent book I happen to be reading is "Calling the Shots:
How the US Dominates Today's UN". It was originally written in '96
(Phyllis Bennis ?) and updated in 2000 with a forward by Dennis Halliday-
ex-head of one of the humanitarian missions for the UN to Iraq. He resigned
in protest calling the sanctions "genocidal". I'm only in the 2nd chapter
and should be interesting. During the mid-90s I was exposed to the idea
that the first gulf war was about oil and that the US kind of tricked Iraq
into invading, then muscled & bribed the rest of the world to UN stamp
a US war on Iraq. The recent chapter in this book is about this.

What was this post about again?
Oh, yeah. N. Korea, uh, forum-Japan.
Uh, What was Japan's take on the first gulf war???
And, what is the take of a randomly selected Japanese person on NKorea
and Bush's label of "axis of evil"? The current goings on?
Do Japanese see the US as more of threat to world peace as the South Koreans do?
Are Japanese people more likely to read or listen to the BBC than to S Korea press?
Uh, what's your take?

DAMN i ramble.
gomenasai.
窶堋イ窶堙溪?堙遺?堋ウ窶堋「ツ。
 
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