The post notes that a chapter published on Feb 15, 2019 reached No.10 in Ameba’s official hashtag ranking (“stamps”), then introduces Masayuki Takayama’s Shukan Shincho column, “Leave Korea Alone.”
It argues that Afghanistan occupies a commanding geopolitical position, which is why great powers repeatedly tried to conquer it, yet failed due to tribal fragmentation and relentless resistance whenever outsiders intervene.
After pursuing al-Qaeda following 9/11, the U.S. remained for years but began drawing down, negotiating withdrawal on the condition that the Taliban sever ties with external forces—an attempt to “Swissify” Afghanistan.
The column suggests this logic applies to the Korean Peninsula as well: historically split into competing factions, rarely unified for outward conquest, and functioning as a buffer shaped by surrounding powers’ interests.
After denuclearization, the author proposes that neighboring states collectively step back and encourage the peninsula to become an “Asian Switzerland.”

February 16, 2019.
NEW! A chapter posted on February 15, 2019 is now ranked 10th in Ameba’s official hashtag ranking: Stamps.
A chapter titled, “There is a view that this Afghanistan settlement applies directly to Korea as well. To Japan, that peninsula looks like a strategic choke point,” posted NEW! on February 15, 2019, is now ranked 10th in Ameba’s official hashtag ranking: Stamps.
The following is from this week’s installment of the well-known column that Masayuki Takayama, the one and only journalist in the postwar world, serializes in Shukan Shincho.
“Leave Korea Alone.”
Afghanistan sits at the center of Asia and occupies the highest position.
If you take it, you can look down on Russia, the Middle East, India, and China.
If you set your mind to it, you can attack and destroy them.
In Europe, Switzerland occupies a similar position.
If a great power takes it, the security of surrounding countries is threatened.
That is why it was made a permanently neutral state and prevented from joining military alliances.
Afghanistan has no such arrangement.
Countries seeking hegemony have gone out to conquer it time and again.
First, India went to take it, but failed.
The name of the mountain range running through central Afghanistan, the Hindu Kush, tells that history.
In Dari, the language used by the local people, it means “killer of Indians.”
Next, Russia and Britain competed to conquer it.
It was called the Great Game.
Britain was the winner.
But although it took Kabul, that country is, put plainly, a nation of bandits.
Pashtuns, Tajiks, Turkmen, and Hazaras carved it up and did each other in, back and forth.
Even the newcomer British troops were attacked and killed if they showed the slightest opening.
Britain gave up on ruling Afghanistan, and in January 1842, 15,000 British soldiers, their families, and prostitutes fled snowy Kabul.
But the only person who made it to Jalalabad was a doctor, William Brydon.
He is the man Conan Doyle used as the model for Dr. Watson.
The reason for the disastrous defeat was that the Indian troops were far too weak against the cold.
The British replaced them with Gurkha soldiers raised in the Himalayas and challenged Afghanistan again.
They tried three times, including after World War I, but they could not dominate the bandit hordes.
Next came Brezhnev’s Soviet Union.
It intended to rebuild the communist regime that way, but in addition to the bandits, al-Qaeda trained by the United States was strong.
The Soviet army collapsed, and then the Soviet Union itself also fell apart.
And this time, the United States came.
It was not for hegemony in that region, but to eradicate al-Qaeda, which carried out 9/11.
After ten years, they took out the ringleader, bin Laden, but the U.S. military stayed on.
This year marks the 18th year, and U.S. war dead have exceeded 7,000.
Even under the Trump administration, which has no interest in that area, the reason for continuing the deployment is that a rising China began to set its sights on it.
However, perhaps confident that it can hold China down through Huawei and tariffs, the U.S. government says it will cut the 14,000 stationed troops in half within the year.
In the first place, looking at Afghanistan’s history, its tribes have merely bickered internally, and there are no examples of the tribes uniting to invade neighboring states.
But if outsiders interfere even slightly, each tribe will resist without tiring.
If left alone, they herd sheep, sell opium, and attack foreigners who wander in, and there is no great harm.
The U.S. government seems to see it that way, and in withdrawal talks with the largest local force, the Taliban, it has set as a condition that they sever ties with external forces such as al-Qaeda.
Put plainly, it is aiming to “Swissify” Afghanistan.
In fact, there is a view that this Afghanistan settlement applies directly to Korea as well.
To Japan, that peninsula looks like a strategic choke point.
If some great power took it, Japan would be in danger.
That is why Japan fought the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars.
For China as well, it would be inconvenient if the culture of the Western free world pushed up to the Tumen River.
For Russia, too, if U.S. bases were built in North Korea, it would be a far bigger matter than the Northern Territories.
With the surrounding countries’ calculations, the current divided state had become the convenient landing point.
But if you look at Korean history, it has always split into two or three and bickered.
Just like Afghanistan.
And it is a pathetic country, as Hayashi Hakuko put it: “Even after the Four Barbarians took the Central Plains, it remained a tributary territory for a thousand years.”
There are no examples of it uniting and striking outward.
So after removing North Korea’s nuclear weapons, why not have the surrounding countries talk and try withdrawing their hands entirely from that peninsula.
Tell Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in, “Everyone wants you to become the Switzerland of the East.”
They are quite vain.
I think they will gladly say OK.