Home>News Center>World
         
 

Seoul ready for 'diplomatic war' with Japan
(CRI)
Updated: 2005-03-24 17:08

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun says his country is ready for a "diplomatic war" with Japan as tensions flared between the neighbours over a territorial row and a Japanese textbook critics say whitewashes Japan's militarism.


Roh Moo-hyun said in a three-page letter addressed to the South Korean public that recent disputes can be called attempts by Tokyo to justify a past he sees as colonialist and expansionist.[Reuters]
Roh Moo-hyun said in a three-page letter addressed to the South Korean public that recent disputes can be called attempts by Tokyo to justify a past he sees as colonialist and expansionist.

He said that South Korea's determination to set Japan right "may cause stinging diplomatic war", but pledged to press Japan to take actions he saw as corrective and persist until Tokyo "listens and does what it rightly has to do."

The comments were the strongest ever on Japan from Roh, who until last year vowed not to let the history get in the way of improving ties with Tokyo.

South Korea's anger was triggered when a local Japanese assembly last week passed a symbolic measure asserting Japan's claim to desolate islands, called Tokto in Korea and Takeshima in Japan, and claimed by both nations.

South Korea has also awaited the result of Tokyo's review of a new history textbook, which critics say whitewashes Japanese military atrocities in Asia and its brutal colonial rule over Korea.




 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Cross-Straits ties threatened by protest

 

   
 

Seoul ready for 'diplomatic war' with Japan

 

   
 

Kim invites Chinese president for a visit

 

   
 

TOEFL ups the ante with online tests

 

   
 

Kyrgyzstan gov't collapses after protest

 

   
 

5-day work week stirs public debate

 

   
  Kyrgyzstan gov't collapses after protest
   
  Japan seeks dialogue as South Korea prepares for 'diplomatic war'
   
  Cambodian man confirmed dead from bird flu
   
  Schiavo's parents appeal to supreme court
   
  Kyrgyz minister says ready to use armed force
   
  Airborne SARS transmission possible -- study
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Advertisement