I feel fairly confident he will send troops back into Afghanistan and combat or security troops at that. It’s a bold move inside Korea, it gives SK some status in the global community, it seeks to recover from the shame of how Korean “troops” were pulled out of Afghanistan, it brings Korea closer to the US after almost 10 years of growing divide, and it gives South Korea’s military experience - among other things.

I am not so confident on how Lee will handle this recent Dokdo item.

I’ve seen too many times where Korean conservatives rise to real or perceived challenges to their sense of nationalism. Even with the conservatives, they have had a habit of at times setting aside national interests in favor of venting nationalistic spleen.

I don’t picture Lee’s administration venting spleen over this.

But, I can picture a situation in which the reaction of the Korean press and NGOs and regular citizens leads Lee’s administration to say a lot of stuff in the press (that it doesn’t back up with actions) against Japan.

I doubt much will come of it, but if the Korean press gets going even slighly significantly on Dokdo, and Lee’s administration says next to nothing, it will be a telling sign.