North Korea Attempts to Reverse U.S. Progress in Japan-South Korea Relations

Big Trouble in Best Korea?

Pyongyang usually casts a wide net of apocalyptic, anti-Western rhetoric—ineffective if only for its excess. On occasion, however, the regime plays the game of thrones well, and seems to have scored a small victory in the information wars with insidious appeals to South Korean nationalism.

At issue is the historical unpleasantry regarding South Korean “comfort girls,” from World War II, something that both Japan and South Korea have tried to move on from and form closer ties.

In 2015, the Obama Administration brokered a bilateral agreement between Japan and South Korea—two of the U.S.’s key allies in the Asia-Pacific region—intended to resolve the longstanding controversy.

The Japanese government issued a formal apology and agreed to pay over $8 million in reparations to the surviving women and their families.

According to Evan Bayh over at The Huffington Post:

"The agreement facilitated a final apology and the Japanese government agreed to put $8.3 million into a fund to help the surviving women. President Obama praised the leaders of Japan and South Korea for “having the courage and vision to forge a lasting settlement to this difficult issue.”

In an article for Reverb Press, author Marc Belisle highlights the importance of the agreement to the Obama Administration’s foreign policy:

This provides a strong hint that President Obama’s “hidden hand” is guiding Tokyo and Seoul toward greater cooperation. The Obama Administration considers its “pivot to Asia” a cornerstone of its foreign policy. Much of what the administration has done in the Asia-Pacific in the last several years has been focused on increasing economic and security ties with a broad range of countries that could form an alliance to counter the rise of China.

The agreement between Japan and South Korea followed months of shuttle diplomacy which began in earnest in April, which was also the height of domestic and international wrangling over the fate of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That colossal free trade agreement relies on Japan, South Korea, and other Asian nations to integrate trade practices and corporate rights. Washington has a strong interest in breaking down barriers between the two countries.

Unfortunately, Washington’s rush to resolve the conflict has opened a gap for Pyongyang to drive a wedge between Japan and South Korea—by siding with the victims.

The Korean American Forum of California, an advocacy group for former Korean sex slaves, heavily criticized the agreement:

"We wholeheartedly agree with the activist victims who are affectionately known as "Halmonis" or 'Grandmas,' who immediately denounced the agreement as a sham. One of the most prominent and leading activists, Grandma Yongsoo Lee, denounced the agreement stating, 'This agreement seems to have been made without having the victims in mind. I dismiss it in its entirety.'"

An executive director of the group, said the apology doesn’t go far enough:

"What the Grandmas have been demanding during the weekly demonstrations — over 20 years in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul ... since the early 1990s — was for the Japanese government to accept official responsibility as the government who committed these war crimes against the women and forced them into this military sexual slavery, and officially apologize to them.... That is what [the Grandmas] saw as the method of recovering their dignity and human rights."

She went on to say the victims want an apology approved by the Japanese government as a whole, and not just a handshake between representatives of the two nations:

"The reason why the Grandmas have been still demanding an apology was because there was never a cabinet-approved apology. It was always an individual apology from individual prime ministers from time to time."

Despite the pledged $8 million to victims’ funds, the group is calling for even larger reparations, akin to the work Germany has done for Holocaust survivors, in order to "to symbolize that Japan takes the full legal responsibility about what happened during the wars — exactly like what Germans did for the Holocaust."

The biggest issue the group takes with the agreement is Japan’s insistence on removing a statue honoring the victims outside of the Japanese consulate:

"So, if you're apologizing for the past war crimes, and if you are willing to make reparations, why are you making a demand to something that equals erasing the history, as if to make it something that never happened?"

Siding with the Victims to Sow Discord: Indicative of an improving rhetorical strategy?

The Association of Koreas in Japan for Peaceful Reunification, a pro-North Korean group, slammed the agreement, echoing the sentiments of the surviving comfort girls:

"For South Korea, there is no more humiliating diplomacy than to reach such a deal with Japan. South Korea views the issue as being resolved finally and irreversibly, even though Japan did not state its legal responsibility in the matter."

Pyongyang used their own media mouthpieces to reprint the statement, becoming North Korea’s official stance overnight. It plays beautifully into the escalating tensions inside South Korea, fueling a nationalist fervor whipped up by members of Chong Dae Hyup.

Evan Bayh again:

Regrettably, North Korea appears determined to exacerbate tensions and increase mistrust between two of America’s most important allies in Asia. The North Korean dictatorship described the historic deal as a “humiliating agreement” and indicated its vehement opposition to any form of détente between South Korea and Japan.

Chong Dae Hyup, an extreme nationalist group with alleged ties to North Korea, has exploited this agreement by rallying nationalist furor in South Korea against Japan. One Korean-American group articulated a similar message and called on President Obama to fire Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a Change.Org petition, for negotiating this historic agreement.

It’s clear Pyongyang is becoming more adept at pulling strings inside its neighboring country, utilizing the global shift toward populism to destabilize South Korea and sow discord between her citizens and emerging East-West alliance.