Comments on: Apology Diplomacy Over?

By: Mizar5

Mizar5 — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:36:11 +0000

“Never! Korea is history’s victim and koreans have a Tangun-given right to whine until Confucius comes back!”

An interesting read is “The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics” by Skeptic Magazine’s Michael Shermer. The general concept is that as reciprocity is necessary in business for the system to work, a nation that properly allies itself with others for mutual gain will not be harmed. An interesting quote in this regard is “where trade does not go, armies will.”

It appears fairly clear to me that Korea was no victim but brought its fate upon itself by its refusal to engage in significant reciprocity with other nations.

By: MigukNamja

MigukNamja — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:46:51 +0000

Troll alert at #11:

“Never! Korea is history’s victim and koreans have a Tangun-given right to whine until Confucius comes back!”

You effectively said same thing in another post, and you are not whining ?

By: WangKon936

WangKon936 — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 01:06:14 +0000

# 17,

Well, in referrence to Koryo and Mongolia, at least we got some hot Yuan princesses for a hundred years, one of our biatches became a empress (Ki Ka Oh) and as a consequence, one of the Mongol emperors was half Korean (Biligtü Khan).

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:59:08 +0000

I can’t imagine that those who constantly demand for apologies from Japan don’t know that the younger generations of Japanese aren’t interested in the group mentality and social hierarchy of past generations. For them, individualism is far more important. Collective guilt? I really wouldn’t count on it.

By: NewYorkTom

NewYorkTom — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:04:16 +0000

Kudos. Well done Marilyn Manson!

If we constantly ask for an apology sixty years later from a generation of people who had absolutely nothing to do with the imperialist government, what’s stopping us from asking for an apology from the Mongolian government for what Genghis and Kublai Khan did to Koryo? Why not an apology from China for wiping out Baekje while allying itself with Silla? Russians and China for arming the Norks? etc., etc. I find this to be so ridiculous.

Has anyone here been satisified when someone half-ass apologizes to you while clenching their teeth and you know they dont mean it? Who’s being childish here? Koreans or Japanese?

By: Zonath

Zonath — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:17:03 +0000

#12 - And why not? After all, if you can’t change your viewpoint over the course of a couple of decades, you’re likely to be dead (or Ron Paul.)

By: Iceberg

Iceberg — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:53:50 +0000

#s 1, 10, 14

That story is from 2005.

By: dokdoforever

dokdoforever — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:54:22 +0000

#1 More unemployed Korean prostitutes are reading the Korea Times then I thought. Good that the paper is trying to help them out with employment tips. For all this talk of crack down, I’m no expert on the subject, but the last time I stopped by the Chongyangni Lotte Dept store, there was a long line of cars waiting to drive through the red light district nearby. My impression was that the crack down was only for show, or that the “full salons” were stepping in to provide services. And, why on earth would Korean prostitutes be traveling to Thailand or Vietnam? They’d be better off here working at Lotteria, unless they get some premium for being ‘exotic Koreans.’ Hard to understand.

By: TomCoyner

TomCoyner — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:23:38 +0000

I think operative word for all of this is “leadership.” In this part of the world among the so-called democracies, national leaders tend to pander to the emotional masses to get public attention off the really important matters these politicians are screwing up. I’ve seen it first hand in both Japan and Korea and I read about it elsewhere, such as China.

Perhaps since 2MB has not yet had a chance to screw up that he can easily take the high ground that overlooks all of this NE Asian nationalist nonsense. On the other hand, we may see coming on stage a politician — nay! a leader — of international stature.

Well, we can only hope. He is definitely not cut from the seedy piece of cloth that makes up most Asian politicians, so we may have cause for cautious optimism. Perhaps we may be seeing the beginning of a diplomatic Pax Asia. Time will tell…

By: mins0306

mins0306 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:32:46 +0000

And this from a guy who earned his street stripes by protesting against former Pres. Park Chung-hee’s efforts to normalize relations with Japan.