[Editorial] Inappropriate remark

It is not just the opposition Democratic Party but the ruling Saenuri Party that is chastising Kim Kyou-hyun, first vice foreign minister, for making improper remarks while paying a courtesy call on the Japanese foreign minister on Thursday. He deserved such a rebuke from the ruling party, if not outright dismissal, as was demanded by the opposition party.

Kim was quoted as saying he expected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party would win big in the House of Councilors elections on Sunday. Kim made the remark when Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said in his office that he was late because he had been held up for the upcoming elections.

As he said, Kim undoubtedly made the remark as a pleasantry. He was right when he said diplomats often attempt to break the ice with a pleasing courteous remark. But the problem with the vice foreign minister was that he failed to see the implications of his remark before he made it.

The Democratic Party, denouncing Kim for making a “thoughtless remark,” drew public attention to Prime Minister Abe’s desire to revise Article 9 of the Japanese constitution if his party won enough seats in the upper house on Sunday to push for constitutional amendment. The constitutional clause bans Japan from engaging in war as a sovereign means of dispute settlement with other states.

Moreover, Abe has often made remarks offensive to the Korean people when referring to Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea and Korean women forced into Japan’s wartime brothels. To the irritation of the Korean people, the Abe government also continued to lay claim to Dokdo, a group of Korean islets in the East Sea.

Taking issue with Abe’s right-wing revisionist handling of Japan’s colonial past, President Park Geun-hye has been delaying scheduling her talks with Abe. Against this backdrop, the Saenuri Party said that as a top diplomat, he should have been considerate in his behavior and his choice of words.

Another problem with Kim’s remark was that it gave the impression that the Korean government was in support of the Liberal Democratic Party in elections that involved other parties. The Korean government would be forced to make a lame excuse if it was accused by any of the Japanese opposition parties of meddling in Japan’s domestic politics.

The Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs came to his rescue when it said he offered nothing but a pleasantry with the Japanese elections coming up as a passing topic. But its spokesman must have felt his tongue tied when he was asked what his ministry would do if Japan, riding on a landslide victory, should attempt to pursue a constitutional amendment and rewrite history to whitewash its colonialist past.