As North Korea stokes ‘invasion’ fears over Japan troops’ Yasukuni visit, South Korea and China stay seemingly silent

“But I’m most surprised that China appears to have said nothing, as this is the sort of thing I would expect Beijing to pounce on.”

South Korea’s Yonhap News reported on Pyongyang’s reaction to the SDF officers’ visit to Yasukuni, although other media outlets appeared to have avoided the usual criticism over the trip by Japanese officials. China’s state media also apparently skipped the issue.

“It is possible that China is waiting to see how the Japanese government responds to the officers’ actions before they weigh in,” Hinata-Yamaguchi said.

Garren Mulloy, a professor of international relations at Daito Bunka University and a specialist in military issues, said he was equally mystified at Beijing and Seoul failing to take advantage of the situation.

“It is, of course, no surprise that North Korea has taken a pop and then claiming that Japan is planning to invade the peninsula is par for the course there,” he said.

“When it comes to South Korea, it is very clear that Seoul wants better relations with Japan as well as the United States and while the South’s media is free, the lack of a reaction is telling.”

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Place of controversy: Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine

Mulloy suggested that editorial writers in South Korea and China might simply not have had the time or space to address the Yasukuni story, given the numerous pressing political, security and international crises that both nations presently face, and it was possible they would return to the issue in the future.

Yet, the incident did not go unnoticed in Japan, where both the Asahi and Mainichi newspapers harshly criticised it.

The Mainichi declared in a January 13 editorial that the troops had organised a group visit to the shrine, which would violate a “request” made in 1974