Opposition party accuses Yoon govt. of 'submissive' diplomacy with Japan

The main opposition Democratic Party accused the Yoon Suk Yeol administration on Monday of engaging in "submissive" diplomacy with Japan by appointing pro-Japan figures to key positions and removing public installations depicting the easternmost islets of Dokdo.

"Since the start of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, we have seen continued pro-Japan submissive diplomacy and a desperation to erase history," DP floor leader Park Chan-dae said during a supreme council meeting. "On the one hand, the pro-Japan faction is gaining power, while on the other, Dokdo is disappearing, which can hardly be dismissed as a coincidence."

Park was referring to a recent controversy over the appointment of Kim Hyoung-suk as president of the Independence Hall of Korea and revelations that several models of Dokdo had been removed from subway stations and the War Memorial of Korea.

Dokdo is a pair of islets in the East Sea that Japan has repeatedly laid claim to.

Kim's appointment has drawn fierce protest from an association of independence fighters' descendants, which claim he holds pro-Japan views and thus boycotted a government ceremony marking Liberation Day on August 15.

Meanwhile, the government has said the Dokdo installations were removed temporarily for renewal.

"There are concerns that what is left is selling Dokdo," Park said. "Acts of selling our sovereignty and territory, or condoning and accepting it, are an 'anti-state act.'"

Park was apparently referring to Yoon's remark during a Cabinet meeting last week that "Anti-state forces that threaten the free democracy are operating covertly in various places." (Yonhap)