Former US Ambassador to the ROK, Donald Gregg, is confusing diplomatic disagreement and an empirical impasse. That two countries could disagree over an issue, like the Cheonan sinking, is not surprising. What is embarrassing is when someone takes diplomatic consensus for truth
But, when Gregg claims that Seoul didn’t play well with its superiors in the region, now that’s something else.
Q: Did the Russian team receive any help from the South Korean government during its investigation?
A: The Russians were frustrated that they couldn’t get access to all of the material that they wanted to see, and were not allowed to conduct tests, so they were unable to carry out the investigation. This is also the reason no Chinese investigation team went to South Korea.
Q: Officials with the South Korean government have said off the record that China has not conducted an investigation into the Cheonan because “it doesn’t want to know the truth.”
A: What I heard from two senior Chinese officials during the past week was that they had been told by Russia that they wouldn’t be able to access any information if they went to South Korea, so that there was no need to send an investigation team to Seoul. China took their advice.
The subject of this diplomatic impasse is nearly irrelevant – what is worrying is how the main protagonists in the Six Party process are acting toward each other.
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Filed under: East Asia, Korea, Maritime, Military, Russia, USA Tagged: china, donald gregg. cheonan, prc, rok
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Re: Northeast Asian Neighbors Behaving Badly