The Foreign Ministers of Japan, South Korea & China have been meeting together, finding areas of agreement and building a groundwork for a possible upcoming trilateral leadership summit.
Somehow, at the same time, diplomat Stephen Bosworth, former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea (and eight-year President of the Sasakawa-funded United States-Japan Foundation) is widely quoted in the press declaring Japan "should not go back on what it has already agreed ... on the subject of comfort women and other subjects." Major story in Korea!
This important topic has simmered for more than seventy years. It's a poorly-timed coincidence that the former U.S. official undiplomatically stirs-up trouble the same day a foreign minister's trilateral meeting is being held (to which the USA was pointedly not invited).
Bosworth goes on to discuss what he believes is "in Japan's interest" -- but if he really cared, he'd zip his lip.
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| Photo: Michael Gross & US State Department |
Somehow, at the same time, diplomat Stephen Bosworth, former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea (and eight-year President of the Sasakawa-funded United States-Japan Foundation) is widely quoted in the press declaring Japan "should not go back on what it has already agreed ... on the subject of comfort women and other subjects." Major story in Korea!
This important topic has simmered for more than seventy years. It's a poorly-timed coincidence that the former U.S. official undiplomatically stirs-up trouble the same day a foreign minister's trilateral meeting is being held (to which the USA was pointedly not invited).
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| Ambassador Bosworth & Secretary of State Clinton, 26 Feb. 2009 |
Bosworth goes on to discuss what he believes is "in Japan's interest" -- but if he really cared, he'd zip his lip.