Re:영어공부

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위 글을 좀 더 읽기 쉽게 옮겼습니다.

[Times Forum] Sound Strategic Thinking


By Heo Mane

Recently Seoul and Tokyo have been at odds over the latter’s fresh claim over the Tokto (Dokdo) islets and its on and off distortions of history textbooks. The two Japanese contradictory insistences mostly result from the absence of virtual introspection of the 35 years of colonial rule of Korea. Tokyo leaders and its conservative intellectuals should, among other things, be conscious that their two claims not only make Korean and Chinese angry but also will cause harsh reactions from Southeast Asian people. However, the Seoul government has long made efforts to develop a future-oriented posture towards Japan by letting bygones be bygones and by creating a new perception in bilateral cooperation.

From this perception, the former government succeeded in creating ``the 1998 Korea-Japan Joint Partnership’’ that was aimed at marching towards future-oriented relations instead of embroiling themselves in past-oriented thinking. The present government took the initiative in designating 2005 as ``Korea-Japan Friendship Year’’ to mark the 40^th anniversary of diplomatic normalization. Most Koreans believe that focusing on past-oriented thinking will result in bringing both parties only relations of whirlwinds that could degenerate the overall bilateral cooperation. On the other hand, Korean cultural performances have further enhanced the depth and width of civilian exchanges, developing the largest-ever exchange between the two countries. And if both parties enforced a free trade agreement (FTA) at this critical moment, it would speed up trade volume because it will serve to both as comparative competition in industry, service, culture and farming

Moreover, the Seoul and Tokyo government have fostered the closest coalition against the North Korean nuclear development ambitions since several years with the United States as the main player to them. In 1998, to its great surprise, a long-range North Korean missile flew over Japanese air space. This violated their practical sovereignty of the airspace. Since then, Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington have practically responded as a tripartite coalition to the nuclear issue. Nuclear ambitions of the Stalinist state have been the source of potentially threatening strategic equilibrium throughout Northeast Asia. Now North Korea is a de facto nuclear state since its Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Feb. 10 declaration that it possessed nuclear weapons. The tripartite coalition has, however, not yielded any fruit in thwarting the nuclear-oriented direction. At this conjuncture, sound strategic thinking is badly needed to continue to push a future-oriented posture forward between Korea and Japan, which are separated by a short distance across the East Sea.

However, the Tokyo government has been backing the Shimane Prefecture’s nonsensical move _ the designation of ``Takeshima Day.’’ The bill amounts to a practical violation of Korea’s territorial sovereignty over the Tokto islets. The Tokyo provocation has led the Seoul government to take a new doctrine aimed at responding to Japan with all means available. All of a sudden, the Tokyo challenge deprived Korea of its long quiet diplomacy towards Japan. The new doctrine may lead to a total diplomatic war as both parties fail to seek a satisfactory solution through normal diplomatic channels to the Tokto dispute unilaterally triggered by Tokyo.

Historically, Tokto has belonged to Korean water over which it has effectively exercised sovereignty. Dating back to the 19^th century, the Edo Bakufu government stated that Tokto had no relations whatsoever with Japan and that the islets should be taken away from the Shimane Prefecture map. Even before this instruction in 1868, the Edo government explained that Tokto and Ullung Island belonged in Korean waters. It was true, however, that Korea could not voice sovereignty over the islets during the 35 years of Japanese colonization. On the other hand, it is a historical fact that the islets have returned to Korea with the U.N. forces occupying half of the Korean Peninsula. Since then, this country has effectively controlled them up to the present. Given this situation, as far as the history textbook is concerned, we only hope that the Tokyo government will not adopt the distorted history textbook in order for the government to offer right and future-oriented history to Japanese students. A prosperous future of the two neighboring countries depend on their youth and their succeeding generations who know how to cooperate with each other with sound, strategic thinking in this region in the 21^st century. Many Koreans expect that Japanese intellectuals will come up with a correct review of the history textbook in May.

From now onwards, fully conscious of the historical developments of the islets, the Tokyo government and its leaders should voluntarily return to sound, strategic thinking capable of creating a better future-oriented posture instead of being plunged into chauvinistic thinking. Sound strategic thinking may help the Tokyo government to advance toward becoming a U.N Security Council member, while chauvinistic thinking will surely block the way. Japan’s contradictory behavior is most likely to fail to result in a peaceful solution to North Korean nuclear threats even with U.S intervention. Tokyo leaders must therefore understand that failure to work out a solution to the issue may eventually lead to destroy strategic equilibrium in Northeast Asia as a whole, which constitutes the core function of the tripartite coalition. By this rationale, it is right that Tokyo leaders, particularly conservative elites, keep sound, strategic thinking in mind.

** The writer is a professor emeritus at Pusan National University and president of the Korea-EU forum.

03-29-2005 20:40

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아까 내가 분명 댓글을 몇마디 달았는데 안보이는걸 보니, 적기만하고 등록 크릭을 안한 모양이구먼. 조사장에게 이글을 일일히 타이핑한것인지 아니면 다른 방법으로 옮긴 것인지 물어 봤지요.

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이 아우가 아무리 성의가 있다 하더라도 일일히 타이핑까지 했겠습니까? Korea Times 웹사이트(http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200503/kt2005032920380654300.htm)에서 복사해다가 font size만 좀 키웠을 뿐입니다.

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내가 찾고 또 찾다가 포기하고 할수 없이 pdf로 했는데, 역시 사장님은 사장님이라. 지금 이것 보고 한번 찾아 보려 했는데도 잘 안찾아 지네...에그...