East Asia News & Politics Thread: China, South Korea, Japan...

After years of discussions, Tokyo and Seoul have agreed to share defense intelligence on North Korea's nuclear program. But opposition parties have decried the pact, saying it recognizes "Japan's military rise."

During a recent stay in Japan, a former top U.S. security official and adviser to then-presidential candidate Donald Trump secretly met and gave assurances to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, a high-ranking Japanese official has said.

Michael Flynn, formerly director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, was visiting the head office of the Liberal Democratic Party in Tokyo on Oct. 1, ostensibly to deliver a lecture on cybersecurity.

During the secret meeting, Flynn assured Suga that Washington would not change its diplomatic emphasis on the military alliance with Japan, even if Trump was elected president, the official said.

During the campaign, Trump had harshly criticized Japan as an unfair security and trade partner.

Suga found Flynn to be “a very respectable man,” the official told a group of reporters from major media outlets, on condition of anonymity.

The official appeared to be trying to assuage deep pubic concerns over the maverick businessman, who threatened to withdraw U.S. troops from Japan and let it defend itself against North Korea, possibly with its own nuclear weapons.

“I don’t think anyone would be able to drastically change the Japan-U.S. military alliance,” the official said, echoing comments later repeated by other Japanese officials trying to ease the shock stemming from Trump’s unexpected victory.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Trump will meet for the first time on Thursday in New York, putting Flynn’s reassurance to Suga to the test and assessing Trump’s apparent change in tone since the election.

The New York Times has listed Flynn among candidates Trump may tap for secretary of defense or director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

“I want to make (the meeting) the first step to build up mutual trust” with the U.S. president-elect, Abe told an Upper House session on Tuesday.

“I’d like to exchange opinions (with Trump) over such issues as trade, economy and the Japan-U.S. alliance,” he added.

Most of Abe’s diplomatic policies, including those to keep China’s military expansion in Asia in check and to stop North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile development programs, are based on Japan’s military alliance with the U.S.

But during the campaign, Trump repeatedly painted Japan as an unfair trade and security partner, describing the alliance as one-sided.

Any damage to Japan’s ties with the U.S. would likely mean a severe blow for Abe’s administration.

After the Nov. 8 election, Trump has significantly softened his rhetoric, calling on Americans to “bind the wounds of division” in his first post-election speech.

Trump’s apparent about-face has prompted many Japanese officials and observers to believe — if not wish — that the U.S. president-elect may stop using provocative rhetoric and start acting like a “normal” politician with more realistic diplomatic approaches toward Japan, a longtime U.S. ally.

“We need to revise our profiling analysis of Mr. Trump,” said former Defense Minister and Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba, in an interview published Nov. 10 on Nikkei Business Online.

Ishiba, too, met Flynn and exchanged opinions for about three hours in Tokyo last month. Flynn’s message for Japan as summarized by Ishiba: Don’t worry too much about Trump’s rhetoric during the campaign.

“Trump may have used radical rhetoric at first because he didn’t know much (about the security situation in Asia) … but he, as the president-elect, will now have more information, and he will understand the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance,” Ishiba was quoted as saying.

“In many cases, what a (U.S.) presidential candidate said during the campaign was different from what he actually did after he was elected,” Ishiba added.

Meanwhile, many observers suspect Trump may not have any comprehensive view of how he will deal with complex security situations involving Japan, China, Taiwan and the Koreas.

During the campaign, Trump rarely discussed any specific diplomatic policies for the Asia-Pacific region, except for his repeated calls on Japan and South Korea to shoulder more of the costs of maintaining U.S. troops in those countries.

On Tuesday, The Financial Times newspaper quoted an unnamed U.S. official as saying he believes Trump has “no real Asia team yet.”

The newspaper reported that Tokyo and Beijing are struggling to identify and contact key Trump advisers.

“The Chinese ambassador is driving everyone crazy saying ‘who is in charge of China?’ ” an unnamed Trump adviser was quoted as saying.

Asked about FT’s report, Suga said Wednesday that Tokyo has already identified and contacted key persons “who are believed to be advising Trump” on Japan policies.

Suga meanwhile said Trump has yet to establish any formal team of Asian experts. But he maintained that Japan has already established contacts with persons who “will influence” such a team once it is formed.

Asked if the list includes Flynn, Suga didn’t confirm or deny, saying only that “various people” are included.

Hirotsugu Aida, professor at Aoyama Gakuin University and a former Washington bureau chief of Kyodo News, said he believes Trump might establish more realistic diplomatic policies now that he has become the president-elect.

Trump used radical rhetoric when speaking about Japan and other countries during the campaign to garner support from frustrated voters among the white lower middle class, Aida said.

“It’s rhetoric to say he would not use (government) money for the sake of other countries. So words themselves won’t carry much weight,” Aida said.

Trump supporters, he said, are likely to be preoccupied with how he will directly help their daily lives, such as through public works projects to rebuild infrastructure and create jobs.

“Now, Trump appears to be carefully considering what position he should take. Now, as the president-elect, he needs to get along with mainstream players of the Republicans and Congress,” he said.

China has unexpectedly begun taking steps to become more militarily active in the small Central Asian republic of Tajikistan. Moreover, it is pushing for closer joint military and security cooperation with Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. These moves could position China as a potential regional counterweight to Russia, whose military role in Central Asia is exemplified by the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO—of which Tajikistan is also a member) as well as Russia’s largest foreign military base, which is located on Tajikistani soil.

A platform under construction at a power plant in eastern China collapsed early on Thursday, killing at least 67 people, and trapping one worker in the debris, state media said.

Deadly accidents are relatively common at industrial sites in China, where anger over lax standards is growing. Three decades of swift economic growth have been marred by incidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires.

Two injured workers were taken to hospital soon after the 7 a.m. accident at the plant in Fengcheng in Jiangxi province, state television said, revising down an earlier figure of five.

It put the death toll at 67, and said rescuers were trying to free one trapped worker.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has ordered an investigation, demanding that those responsible for the accident should be held accountable, the central government said.

"Strengthen supervision and preventive measures, prevent such a major accident from happening again," it cited Li as saying in a statement on its website.

Xinhua did not identify the type of power plant, but previous state media reports have said it was coal-powered.

China has vowed to improve safety at such facilities. President Xi Jinping has said authorities would learn the lessons paid for with blood after chemical blasts in the port city of Tianjin killed more than 170 people last year.

Shortly after those explosions, Yang Dongliang was removed from his post as director of the State Administration of Work Safety, and later charged with corruption.

During his trial, which ended on Thursday, he admitted to taking bribes and gifts worth 28.5 million yuan ($4.12 million), state television reported. He will be sentenced later, it added.

It was not immediately possible to reach Yang's legal representative for comment.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

For South Korean schoolgirl Lee Su-jin, the daily commute into one of the world's most heavily armed zones, trundling past barbed-wire fences, military checkpoints and anti-tank barricades, has become routine.

The 11-year-old's school sits in the Korean peninsula’s Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 4-km (2.5-mile) wide buffer between North and South Korea that former U.S. President Bill Clinton once called "the scariest place on Earth".

Lee is one of 25 children who ride the bus from nearby towns to the Daesungdong Elementary School, located in Taesung Freedom Village, a settlement on the southern side of the DMZ.

"People are worried about us, but soldiers are with us, and we do evacuation drills. So I don't think there is anything to be scared or worried about," the fourth grader told Reuters.

Places at her school, just a few steps from North Korea, are coveted by South Koreans living near the border, as it offers their children a rare opportunity to learn English from American soldiers and United Nations officials overseeing a fragile truce that followed the 1950-53 Korean War.

The school has 29 pupils this year, against a quota of 30 agreed with United Nations officials. With just four children from the village itself, authorities allot places by lottery for those who live elsewhere.

Students pay no fees for classes or meals.

Parents consider the extracurricular lessons in English, a key subject in school and college entrance exams, give children an advantage over private, and often expensive, alternatives available elsewhere in the South.

"My mom recommended this school," Lee said.

The school opened initially for children of farmers allowed to stay in the DMZ after the war. Isolated North Korea and the wealthy, democratic South are still technically at war after the conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

In 2008, facing extinction as the surrounding population dwindled, the school opened its doors to South Korean children living outside the DMZ.

At the same time, the U.S.-led United Nations command headquarters began sending soldiers there to teach English twice a week.

"Our students' parents are very interested in their children learning English, and ask a lot about their English ability," said Lee Hyun-sun, the school's vice principal.

Bryan Waite, a 22-year-old American sailor and volunteer teacher, said the school allowed students to practice English speaking skills and learn about the history of the area.

"It's a unique experience and it's very important that the children, from a young age, are exposed to English and to knowing what the DMZ is, and how it comes into play in their lives and the history behind it," Waite said.

In contrast to the upbeat mood in the classroom, an uneasy tension hangs over the village. The steady drone of North Korean music comes over the border, where farmers work under military supervision.

Unless they have a military escort, students are forbidden to venture outside the school, which faces north, and has a frontage packed with bricks to protect against stray bullets.

Teachers and children must leave the school every day ahead of a curfew that runs from midnight to 5 a.m.

Despite the risks, there is a certain peace in the desolate zone, said vice principal Lee.

"When I cross into the southern boundary, my mind is really peaceful," he said. "I've never felt anything dangerous."

(Additional reporting by Nataly Pak; Editing by Jack Kim, Darren Schuettler and Clarence Fernandez)