TIBET

Marmot's Hole has been maintaining great coverage of the Korean-Chinese controversy over Koguryo. He notes that it, thankfully, may be coming to an end. That would probably be a good thing.

I read the below item this morning and thought Sino-Korean relations were about to take a serious nosedive:

A leading opposition party leader on Monday underlined the necessity of joining forces with Asian countries or territories, including Tibet, to deal with China’s attempt to distort the history of the ancient Korean kingdom of Koguryo.
``International cooperation with China’s neighbors is necessary for us to deal with its efforts to twist history,’’ Rep. Kim Moon-soo of the Grand National Party said in an interview with The Korea Times.

While I sympathize with the Tibetan independence movement - and generally even support it - no government in Asia would ever 'deny' that 'Tibet has always been a part of China.' They probably should, but they don't.

China reacts hysterically when its historical territorial claims are questioned. Taiwan gets the brunt of the attention – and deservedly so, as a war there would be disruptive on a global scale. But the big Communist, pseudo-fascist, fascist, globalizing giant of Asia is also liable to fly off the handle at any suggestion that Tibet is not a part of China.

Kim Moon-soo just called Tibet one of China's 'neighbors.' If a government official did that you could expect several weeks of froth from the Great Red Nation. For the sake of regional stability, we should all be thankful that the GNP is in opposition.

Though, personally, I've never cared that much for stability.


UPDATE: Robert of the Marmot's Hole comments that this probably isn't over and that the Tibet comment was most likely a bad translation. He's probably right on both counts. He also notes that China has started to block the website of a prominent Korean newspaper that is covering the Koguryo issue.

Still, an elected official suggesting that Korea cooperate with Tibet on China's 'distortions of history' can't go down too well in Beijing.