When Japanese PM Abe came for dinner, Israeli PM Netanyahu's private chef Segev Moshe put his foot in it with the dessert: chocolates served in a metal shoe, "which is considered highly offensive in Japanese culture." https://t.co/o0aVnOGgewpic.twitter.com/Yx4f6BQp7s
Here we go with another example of South Korean politicians scoring cheap political points during the upcoming summit with Kim Jong-un at the expense of Japan:
Japan has protested South Korea’s move to put dessert with a decoration featuring Dokdo on the table for the dinner planned for the upcoming historic inter-Korean summit, a local media reported Wednesday.
According to Japan’s broadcaster NHK, Kenji Kanasugi, the Japanese foreign ministry’s director-general of Asian and Oceania affairs, protested the Seoul government’s decision in his meeting with a senior South Korean Embassy official in Tokyo.
He is also reported to have expressed regrets and called on the Seoul government to drop the food from the dinner menu.
On Tuesday, the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae disclosed the details of the menu for the summit dinner that included the dessert capped with an edible map of a unified Korean Peninsula also showing the country’s eastern islets of Dokdo. [Yonhap]
You can read the rest at the link, but notice the South Koreans did not put Ieodo on to the map which they have a territorial dispute with China over.
Also the fact the Japanese government is protesting this is just as juvenile.
The Japanese Foreign Minister is finding out that no one wants to hear that the North Koreans are already misbehaving before a deal has even been reached:
Foreign Minister Taro Kono got a scathing reaction from the international community over his call to not be taken in by North Korea’s latest charm offensive.
Kono insists that North Korea is gearing up for a seventh nuclear test, but his warning has fallen on deaf ears.
“(North Korea) is working hard for its next nuclear test,” Kono asserted in a lecture he gave in Kochi on March 31.
On April 2, 38 North, a website operated by Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies that is devoted to analysis about North Korea, posted an article dismissing Kono’s contention based on current activity at the nuclear test site.
“Commercial satellite imagery from March 23 shows quite a different picture: namely, that activity at the Punggye-ri test site has been significantly reduced compared to previous months,” the article says. [Asahi Shimbun]
You can read more at the link, but it seems a nuclear test would be within the Kim regime’s playbook to conduct if a deal to their liking is not reached in upcoming negotiations.
Does anyone know if this is something that Korean employers try to implement as well?:
Timing of one unidentified woman reportedly clashed with pregnancy “shifts” drawn by the childcare centre director
Japanese worker has been reprimanded by her boss for “selfishly breaking the rules” after she became pregnant before it was her “turn”, according to media reports.
The woman was working at a private childcare centre in Aichi prefecture, north Japan, when she found out she was pregnant.
However, the timing reportedly clashed with “shifts” drawn by the childcare centre director, which listed when female staff were allowed to marry and have children.
The plight of the woman, who has not been identified, highlights the unsettling practice of some Japanese companies dictating when female staff are allowed to marry and have children, depending on their level of seniority. [The Telegraph]
Japan wants conditions attached to the summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un: make North Korea promise to resolve the abduction issue and abandon medium-range ballistic missiles having Japan within range https://t.co/GFQUq4fJrQ
It looks like Japan does not want to be left out of the upcoming negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:
With North Korea now engaged with South Korea and getting ready for talks with the U.S., it looks like Japan doesn’t want to be left out. Tokyo says that if the North agrees to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities it’s willing to foot the initial costs up to 300 million yen, or about 2.8 million dollars. That’s according to Kyodo News Agency, citing multiple Japanese government officials. Analysts say Japan is trying to make sure it has a voice in the process of North Korea’s denuclearization and related discussions.
The Kyodo report went on to say that Japan will continue to pressure North Korea into taking concrete action on the nuclear issue. Pyongyang hasn’t allowed in nuclear inspectors from the IAEA since 2009. Inspections of its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon would cost up to around 3.7 million dollars, so Japan’s proposed contribution would foot most of the bill. [Arirang News]
Pretty horrible whoever did this, but in this day in age of fake racism you never know if it was in fact a racist who did this:
The Marine Corps is investigating after a racial slur was posted on a movie theater marquee over the weekend at Camp Hansen, Okinawa.
The Marine Corps is investigating after a racial slur was posted to a base theater marquee on Okinawa.
The incident happened Sunday at Camp Hansen — home to 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, 9th Engineer Support Battalion and 12th Marine Regiment — Marine officials said. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but you would think there would be security cameras around the theater that possibly recorded something to help catch whoever did this.
A video uncovered from the US National archives shows that Japanese forces massacred a number of Korean women believed to have been sex slaves following a battle in China:
Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul National University Human Rights Center unveiled video footage, Tuesday, showing scores of bodies of Korean sex slaves being dumped after being killed by Japanese soldiers during World War II.
The Japanese government has denied any responsibility for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women into sexual slavery. But the latest footage contradicts that claim, according to researchers studying the issue.
The 19-second footage depicts a Chinese soldier looking at scores of naked bodies he carried to a hill. In another scene, he takes a sock off one of the bodies before walking away. Another scene shows smoke billowing from what appears to be a mound of human bodies at a different location.
The research team said the footage was recorded Sept. 15, 1944, in Tengchong, a western Chinese village bordering Myanmar, by an Allied Command soldier, surnamed Baldwin. The team recovered the footage from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
In June that year, the Allied Command began attacking Tengchong and a nearby city which were under control of almost 3,000 Japanese soldiers. As defeat became more certain, the Japanese soldiers took their own lives and killed people stationed with them, including the sex slaves. At least 70 sex slaves were believed to have been there with the troops, among whom only 23 survived.
Together with the footage, the team also revealed a document filed by the Allied Command reporting the killing of Korean sex slaves. “Night of the 13th (Sept. 13, 1944), the Japs shot 30 Korean girls in the city,” the document said. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link and below is the actual video.
