Far East items of interest
Dr. Jeffrey Hall: How Japan Will Select its Next Prime Minister. Excellent video. (4 minutes).
Neil Bush on China: surprising!
South Korea's former President Moon Jae-in:
Six years after Pyongyang Declaration, Moon urges inter-Korean dialogue
“The Korean Peninsula is in a precarious state, just one step away from military conflict. The authorities of both North and South Korea must not exacerbate the situation and immediately move to reinitiate dialogue.”
These were the words of former South Korean President Moon Jae-in during his speech on Thursday to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 19, 2018, signing of the Pyongyang Declaration at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center in Gwangju.
...
“There is the possibility that the US will reinitiate dialogue with North Korea after the presidential election. If we are to avoid standing on the sidelines as we have in the past, we need to make the first move to resume dialogue,” Moon said.
“Unlike under past administrations, it looks as though North Korea will refuse to accept complete denuclearization and instead claim its status as a nuclear weapon state going forward. To achieve the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, South Korea and the US need to cooperate even more closely to share and cooperate on negotiation strategies,” the former president continued.
It's interesting that Moon is speaking on North Korea and unification issues while Yoon is still president. This indicates how serious the situation is. Moon is also fed up with the politically motivated investigations of himself, his wife and daughter, search warrants and so on. I don't think I've heard him speak out on unification/peace with North Korea issues since Yoon took office.
This is how North Korea marked the 6th Anniversary on September 19:
North Korea says it tested new ballistic missile with ‘super-large’ warhead
The tests involved Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 missiles, mounted with a 4.5-tonne super-large conventional warhead, KCNA said. North Korea previously announced tests for that weapon in July.
Kim stressed “the need to continue to bolster up the nuclear force and have the strongest military technical capability and overwhelming offensive capability in the field of conventional weapons too”.
Dear Friend
추억은 Memory
구름따라 흐르고 flows following clouds
친구여 Dear Friend
모습은 어딜 갔나 Your visage, where has it gone?
그리운 친구여 Missed dear friend.
옛 일 Past days
생각이 날때마다 each time those thoughts arise,
우리 our
잃어버린 정 찾아 lost affection, I seek
친구여 Dear Friend
꿈속에서 만날까 in a dream shall we meet
조용히 눈을 감네 Quietly, close our eyes
슬픔도 기쁨도 Sadness and Joy too,
외로움도 함께 했지 loneliness too, we had together.
부푼 꿈 을 안고 Risen dream, embrace
내일을 다짐하던 Our promised tomorrow
우리 굳 센 약속 어디에 Our sure strong pledge where is it?
꿈은 The dream
하늘에서 잠자고 Sleeps in heaven
추억은 The memory
구름따라 흐르고 flows following clouds
친구여 Dear Friend
모습은 어딜 갔나 Your visage, where has it gone?
그리운 친구여 Missed dear friend.
Comments
The LDP leader selection projection in Japan
is Ishiba, Takaichi, Koizumi for the top three with no one taking the majority vote in the first round of the selection process. Not sure what Jeffrey Hall means says Koizumi is in a position to "choke this thing," Does he mean he's choking? Or does he mean block a selection in the first phase of the party selection process? Before, it looked like no one would take a majority in the first phase of the LDP candidate selection process.
Hosaka Yuji, a professor on Japanese affairs in South Korea just broadcast live on a poll that showed Ishiba at 26%, Takaichi at 22% and Koizumi at 19%. This must have been the prior poll (Sep 13) to the one Dr. Hall is reporting on in the tweet. But as Dr. Hall suggests in the video the polling can be misleading.
According to Yuji, Taro Aso's faction is going to back one of the two other than Ishiba, whom he reportedly detests. On the earlier projection reported on by Yuji, in phase 1 of the selection, Diet members plus party members vote Ishiba gets 123, and Takaichi gets 123, Koizumi gets aroung 108. That's out of 738 total, party members, plus diet members in the party. Supposedly, former PM Suga supports Koizumi. 123 votes were "undecided." One other candidate, also female, received 9%, in fact the rest of the other 6 were 5% or less. Kono had 3%.
Yuji is projecting the second phase of selection of party leader to be a combination of two of the top three against each other. I'm thinking the "kingmakers" could perhaps push out Ishiba, just because in the past he's been an also ran. Then it would be Koizumi v. Takaichi. But I'm no expert on Japanese (s)elections. This really has been my first look at one. Frankly, it's hard to find reporting in English which doesn't surprise me one bit.
All three candidates are very conservative. Takaichi, the female candidate, is a far right hawk, she's regarded as anti-China and old guard with support of scandal tainted politicians. Koizumi, the youngster, is a 4th generation elite, who may take the younger diet member vote, he's characterized as too inexperienced, he's a deregulator. Ishiba is an austerity advocate and I understand he wants to increase taxes on business. He's pretty much a hawk on foreign policy as well from what I can tell. I don't think the back room deal aspect of this selection process has been eliminated. Could there be a black swan selection from one of the other six?
語必忠信 行必正直