Published on July 13, 2019.
Based on an essay by Abiru Rui in the Sankei Shimbun, this article examines the reactions of the South Korean government and South Korean media to Japan’s proper management of semiconductor-material exports to South Korea.
It points out the contradiction that while South Korea expected U.S. mediation, its own media had reported a surge in illegal exports of strategic materials, and criticizes South Korea’s easy Japan-bashing and dependence on the United States.

July 13, 2019.
In its May 17 article, “Illegal Exports from South Korea of Strategic Materials Convertible to Weapons of Mass Destruction Surge,” it had itself reported that strategic materials that can be diverted to missile warhead processing and uranium enrichment were being illegally exported in large quantities.
The following is from an essay by Abiru Rui, one of the finest active newspaper reporters, published in yesterday’s Sankei Shimbun.
People watching NHK news about South Korea’s words and actions should immediately notice that the people who control NHK’s news department do not report at all the following facts that Mr. Abiru, as a journalist, naturally teaches us—do they intentionally not report them?
Or do they really not know them?
If so, they have no qualifications as journalists, and NHK must return its license as a news organization.
They are truly too terrible.
The Broadcasting Act, or the journalistic code, says that reporters must never insert personal opinions into reporting.
To evade this, they invented the word “caster,” and have Arima, whose face plainly shows that he is a red union activist, and the vicious Kuwako, who disguises with frequent laughter the fact that her mind consists only of a self-tormenting view of history and pseudo-moralism acquired by subscribing to the Asahi Shimbun and watching television, make comments aligned with the Asahi Shimbun, thereby repeatedly carrying out insidious information manipulation in an attempt to brainwash the Japanese people into their own ideology.
This is the reality of Japan’s national broadcaster.
When it reports on matters related to China, it is the Japan branch of China’s state broadcaster.
When it reports on matters related to present-day South Korea, it is completely the Japan branch of South Korea’s state broadcaster.
Why does this happen?
Needless to say, it is because their agents control NHK’s news department.
In the case of China, it is probably because, on every occasion—indeed, day and night—intelligence officers stationed at the Chinese embassy visit NHK to give guidance.
Regarding the following article, the management of Kindai University, those lowest of people who invite as professors South Koreans raised under the anti-Japanese education that South Korea has continued for 74 years after the war and allow them to brainwash students however they like, and the more than 40 percent of students who have not a shred of intelligence and are utterly unqualified to be university students, whose duty is to pursue learning—the old saying was entirely true, “the fools of Kindai”—and who answered that the Japanese government should also review the comfort women issue, must read it with their eyes wide open.
It is fine to be a fool if one is merely a fool, but in order not to become a traitor to the nation or a criminal, they must read it with their eyes wide open.
South Korea, turning to America whenever it is in trouble.
Over Japan’s proper management of semiconductor-material exports to South Korea, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha held a telephone meeting on the 10th with U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo and expressed concern over Japan’s measures.
South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Mr. Pompeo showed understanding, but since announcements by the South Korean government are not very reliable, the truth is unknown.
However, at the very least, it is clear that South Korea is placing its hopes in U.S. mediation between Japan and South Korea.
Indeed, if one traces recent articles in South Korea’s major newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo, one can clearly see its tendency to rely on the United States whenever it is in trouble.
Impatience as the situation fails to move.
For example, the article dated the 8th, “South Korea Sends SOS to the United States; Did Japan Block It in Advance?” wrote as follows.
“The view is that Japan’s claim that ‘South Korea is violating sanctions against North Korea’ is intended to make it difficult for the United States, which strongly calls for ‘maintaining sanctions,’ to step in as a mediator.”
One can sense its impatience that the United States is not stepping in as an intermediary.
The column dated the 9th, “U.S. Official: ‘Why Do We Have to Mediate Between South Korea and Japan?’” states flatly:
“The fact that the U.S. government is not acting actively despite the worsening of South Korea-Japan relations can be called exceptional.”
One can read into this the assumption that the United States acts according to South Korea’s convenience.
An article on the same date, “Senior South Korean Officials Visit the United States Seeking Support, but the United States Remains Passive,” was crying out.
“The United States is also silent about the Japanese side’s claim that ‘etching gas may be flowing to North Korea through South Korea.’”
“Regarding the U.S. attitude, there is speculation that Japan may have explained the matter to the United States before this economic retaliatory measure, or that the United States sympathized with it to a certain extent.”
The article dated the 10th, “Is America’s Silence ‘Calculated’?” added even more speculation.
“America’s silence, which holds the key to mediation, is being prolonged. It is analyzed that this may be a ‘strategic silence’ calculated on the basis of prior consensus with Japan and the reflected benefits to its own semiconductor industry.”
I do not think the United States is so concerned about South Korea’s movements, but the South Korean side seems to believe that it is only natural for the United States to mediate.
The article dated the 11th, “Senior South Korean Presidential Office Official Visits the United States to Discuss Japan’s Export Restrictions and the North Korean Nuclear Issue,” points out:
“It is expected that he will actively appeal the unfairness of Japan’s export-restriction measures, and attention is focused on whether he will request mediation from the U.S. side.”
The article on the same date, “Japan-South Korea Lobbying Battle Opens in Washington, D.C.,” shows the same perspective.
“Attention is focused on whether the United States will move into full-scale mediation regarding this situation.”
It is strange that they seem to believe that if the United States intervenes, it will work in South Korea’s favor.
Why do they not consider that the opposite could happen?
They seem to have completely forgotten that they unilaterally broke the Japan-South Korea agreement on the comfort women issue, which the United States witnessed and praised, thereby causing the United States to lose face.
Japan-bashing as well.
In its editorial dated the 8th, “‘South Korea Handed Materials for Poison Gas to the North,’ Says Japan; Show the Evidence,” the same newspaper harshly criticized Japan as follows.
“Has Japan become a country that mobilizes even fake news in order to rationalize economic retaliation against a neighboring country?”
However, in its May 17 article, “Illegal Exports from South Korea of Strategic Materials Convertible to Weapons of Mass Destruction Surge,” it had itself reported that strategic materials that can be diverted to missile warhead processing and uranium enrichment were being illegally exported in large quantities.
Before rushing into easy Japan-bashing and reliance on the United States, why not acquire the habit of looking at one’s own country a little more objectively?
Editorial writer and political news editor.