It seems like the bickering between Korea and Japan will never end. The latest squabble is that South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said last week that the 1965 treaty between Japan and Korea does not absolve Japan of the responsibility to pay compensation to war crimes victims. However, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sees it differently. He believes that the 1965 treaty does end all claims to compensation because the Korean government at the time could of given the $800 million dollars that Japanese gave Korea to the individual victims but chose to instead use it for economic development. Here is a passage from today’s Chosun I think really sums up this whole controversy well:

Of the five nations that got money from Japan after World War II, in the name of restitution or funds to “congratulate them on national independence,” only Korea made priority use of the funds for economic development by effectively investing it in basic facilities like the construction of Pohang Iron and Steel (now POSCO) and the Seoul-Busan Highway. In the Philippines, which got even more money, the landed elites spent it any way they liked. In the early 1960s, the Philippines’ per capita income was six times ours; now it is not even a tenth.

In March, President Roh Moo-hyun said he was ready to fight a “diplomatic war” with Japan, adding, “We, too, now have the capability to withstand considerable difficulty.” Yet if the government at the time had not secured foreign investment through its agreement on claims with Japan and sending troops to Vietnam and effectively used those funds for economic development, all the while taking criticism for its “submissive diplomacy” on the chin, the Korean government of 2005 would have no such means to boast about, and would be in no position to fight a diplomatic war.

President Park Chung-hee in 1965 chose to teach his people how to fish instead of giving the fish to them. The Philippines is a great example provided in the article. Their economy ran out of fish a long time ago while the Korean economy still continues to fish.

As horrible as the Japanese Imperial Army’s war crimes are it appears to me that 1965 treaty was supposed to be the agreement that would settle all the Japanese financial liability to Korea. However, when you have a 29% approval rating like President Roh, starting a squabble with Japan is a well used tactic to draw attention away from yourself.