[Newsmaker] Sankei under fire again for attack on Park

Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun came under fire again for an online column that called President Park Geun-hye’s plan to attend China’s World War II victory event “toadyism” and likened her to a 19th-century Korean empress assassinated by Japan.

In its Monday edition, the conservative daily carried the column accusing Korea’s diplomacy of being historically subservient to big powers -- China, Russia or Japan -- alternately, and of keeping the “bad heritage” of playing both the U.S. and China.

Critics here perceived the column as reflecting the paper’s displeasure over the indictment last year of its former Seoul bureau chief, who was accused of libel after reporting on rumors that Park was staying with a man when the Sewol ferry disaster occurred last April.

The Seoul government demanded through its embassy in Tokyo that the Sankei Shimbun retract the column and take steps to prevent a recurrence. But the newspaper reportedly rejected the demand. 

Cheong Wa Dae refused to handle the case itself, dismissing it as being unworthy of its attention.

“We don’t even feel the need to comment on an article of a media outlet in connection with specific figures within Japan, who frequently make brazen claims about the past with their DNA of historical distortions and revisionism,” a Seoul official said, declining to be named.

The controversial column came after President Park made a diplomatically tricky decision to attend China’s military parade on Thursday to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II -- a high-profile event to highlight China’s military ascent against the backdrop of its intensifying strategic competition with the U.S.

Park’s decision was in tune with her “trustpolitik” initiative to seek regional cooperation in denuclearizing North Korea and promote the overall security in the region, Seoul officials explained. Apparently prioritizing its alliance with the U.S., Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe decided not to attend the event.

The conservative paper’s column infuriated Koreans particularly because of its derogatory description of Korea’s diplomacy.

“Toward the end of the Joseon era (1392-1910), (Korea) easily changed countries, to which it held flunkeyism, from (Chinese) Qing Dynasty to Japan, and then to Russia,” the column said. “(South) Korea that has inherited that DNA is employing a way (of diplomacy) reminiscent of the Joseon era.”

The column’s comparison between Park and Empress Myeongseong, in particular, angered Koreans. The column stated that on the back of Russia’s support in 1895, the empress took power, but she was assassinated months later.

The empress was murdered in 1895 by agents under Miura Goro, then the Japanese minister to Korea. Japan, then, thought of her as a major hurdle to its expansionist policy as she was in support of closer ties with Russia.

Korea’s political circles exhibited rare unity in denouncing what they criticized as the “ahistorical” column.

“The description in the column was a shameful portrait of Japan’s ultraconservatism. We are just left speechless by the brazen facade of its ultraconservatism,” said Kim Yong-woo, spokesperson of the ruling Saenuri Party.

“The Sankei Shimbun and ultraconservatives in Japan would be forsaken by Japan’s conscientious people and the international community.”

Kim Young-rok, spokesperson of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, also expressed his party’s displeasure.

“Before the paper talked about toadyism or whatever, it should reflect on what Japan has done -- its pursuit of the expansion of collective self-defense to allow itself to be able to wage a war while leaning on the U.S.,” he said.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)