US Draws Together South Korea and Japan

The United States is urging its allies in the north Pacific to forge closer ties: “Barack Obama used Washington’s clout with both countries to persuade Shinzo Abe and Park Geun-hye, the Japanese and South Korea leaders, to have a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague,” report Richard McGregor and Simon Mundy for the Financial Times. The meeting, the first since Park’s election in 2013, counters attempts to divide US allies, including a recent monument China erected at the Harbin rail station that commemorates the 1909 assassination of the first Japanese prime minister by a Korean independence activist. China and South Korea have long criticized Japan not being more contrite about occupations and atrocities committed during the 20th century. The report notes, “A survey of South Koreans by the Asan Institute, an independent policy think-tank, found that Mr Abe and Japan were less popular, respectively, than Kim Jong Un, the leader of its authoritarian neighbour, North Korea.” – YaleGlobal