The election of Rodrigo Duterte the President of the Philippines last May was seen as a landmark event in the tricky and dangerous contest unfolding in the waters of the South China Sea and in the Southeast Asia as a whole. Though this event has not overwritten the initial scenario of the geopolitical game played in the region, it certainly has altered it.
As it has already been pointed out, the scandal in the Republic of Korea around the figure of Park Geun-hye has moved past the point of a purely corruption case connected with the illegal fund-raising for Mir and K-Sports Foundations, and now accusations against Ms. Choi and her friend, the President, have taken a new turn.
The subject of the upcoming visit of the Russian President V.V. Putin to Japan, which may result in a radical breakthrough in the development of bilateral relations, is gradually shifting into the focus of the Japanese media.
At the same time, the other issues, also important for Japan’s foreign policy, remain in the news. For example, the lack of visible progress in its relations with China, and increasingly prominent (long-accumulated) problems in relations with its key ally: the USA.
On September 26, 2016, the USA introduced sanctions against a Chinese company linked to the North Korean nuclear and missile weapons development program. The company in question is Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development (a.k.a. Hongxiang Group), which is engaged in the supply of industrial equipment, and its four representatives. The US Ministry of Finance officially included them in the sanction list.
On September 30, the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Korea (ROK) announced that it had selected the Lotte Sky Hill Golf Course (located 18 km from the Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province at 680 m above sea level) as the site for the deployment of the American missile defense complexes (THAAD).
As the situation in the South-China Sea continues to detoriate, we should remember that it was Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who took advantage of Japan’s role as host to the recent Group of 7 industrial nations’ annual summit to introduce a provocative resolution criticizing China’s presence in controversial islands of the East China Sea known in China as the Diaoyo Islands and in Japan as the Senkaku islands.
Against the backdrop of the incident involving the apprehension of North Korean poachers which is now being discussed in the Russian media (one person injured on the Russian side, one person killed and eight persons injured on the other side) and might seem to be an unprecedented escalation of the conflict, it is worth mentioning the similar “front” between South Korea and China that accompanies the deterioration of relations due to the THAAD issue.
On September 29, 2016, the US Congress passed an act on Justice against Sponsors of Terrorism, overcoming the veto of Barack Obama. Although the act is mainly highlighted in the context of a possible cooling of relations between the US and Saudi Arabia, this story is also connected with yet another attempt to return North Korea to the list of countries supporting terrorism.
