South Korea is facing a whole slew of
diplomatic challenges at the moment with
its once promising relationship with
North Korea grinding to a standstill and
its ties with Japan as have been hearing
sitting at the lowest point in years so
we thought we'd ask a well respected
professor and author what he thinks
Seoul could do to turn things back into
its favor
he's our Kim bo-gyung Jared Diamond
renowned writer of the book Guns Germs
and Steel has come to Korea to promote
his new book upheaval and has some
advice that might help Seoul find
solutions to the diplomatic problems it
is currently facing in particular he
made two key recommendations to South
Korea regarding its ties with Japan and
North Korea according to diamond
although South Korea and Japan are both
facing potential adversaries in the
region such as China and North Korea
unresolved historical issues were
hampering their cooperation he said a
sincere apology from Japan was the key
to restoring ties but added that Korea
must wait patiently until the Japanese
come to a reckoning on its own with the
country's wartime past still the
professor emphasized that the two
countries need to maintain cooperation
in certain areas both South Korea and
Japan face big problems with the
depletion of fisheries around the world
both South Korea and Japan face big
problems from dangerous neighbors so
even though South Korea and Japan may
disagree strongly about some things it
would be good to work with Japan on the
things we have the same goals to foster
cooperation in at least some areas
touching upon inter-korean ties
professor diamond emphasized the
importance of study back-channel
dialogue in order to break the current
impasse he named Finland as a possible
benchmark for South Korea to look to
with the Scandinavian country having
found a way to survive despite bordering
Russia to the east formally the Soviet
Union
the Finns learned that what they do is
engage in constant discussions they're
not publicized discussions they're
off-the-record discussions with Russia
at every level from the president's to
cabinet ministers to government
officials to low government officials
the eminent author shares more of his
insight in his new book showing ways the
word can deal with global challenges
citing the examples of seven countries
that went through a national political
crisis Kim bo-gyung Arirang news
