Wow...is all I can say

Seoul: Japan inflaming N-crisis
CNN

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea has accused Japan of intensifying the North Korean missile crisis with provocative rhetoric about knocking out the North's missile bases with a pre-emptive strike.

The comments by Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe on Monday were "threatening remarks" that undermine peace on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, said Jung Tae-ho, a spokesman at the South Korean president's office said on Tuesday.

South Korea "will strongly react to the Japanese political leaders' arrogance and outrageous rhetoric that further intensifies the crisis on the Korean Peninsula with dangerous and provocative rhetoric such as 'pre-emptive strike,"' Jung said.

The spokesman also accused the Japanese of using the missile tests as "a pretext for becoming a military power."

I guess that's final: we can stop pretending South Korea is on the same team anymore.

What the hell does "South Korea 'will strongly react' to the Japanese political leader' arrogance and outrageous rhetoric," mean?

A cutoff of cultural exchanges..economic sanctions...a military showdown?

Where the hell are the denizens of the Blue House getting this stuff about Japanese military power pretensions?


Japan's predicament: both of its security partners are led by unpopular, incurious, pugnacious men with no experience living abroad, held isolation from alternate viewpoints by courtiers pandering to extremist elements.