An inferior member in QUAD shameful for ROK: Editorial flash

On Monday, the Republic of Korean (ROK) foreign ministry announced that a local foundation would compensate Koreans enslaved by imperial Japanese companies during World War II, thus sparing Japanese companies' responsibility for it. People crowded in Seoul to protest.

On Wednesday, a senior ROK official was quoted as saying his country will seek to accelerate its participation in the Quad working group, which currently includes the US, Japan, India and Australia and serves as the US' tool to counter China's influences.

The two pieces of news combined sends a clear message to the world that in order to join the small club of US and Japan, the ROK under US pressure is even willing to both bend justice and sacrifice its national interests. One generation after another, ROK leaders vowed to let Japan apologize for its war crimes, but now they give it up.

In other words, ROK chooses to bow to Japan as a never-apologizing historical invader, so as to better serve its boss, the US, in countering China as its imaginary enemy.

But even if it succeeded in joining the Quad at a cost of its own national interests, the ROK would always be considered an inferior member being held in contempt.

In a 2013 film Flu, when the US commander decided to bomb ROK people infected with warplanes, the ROK president firmly said that they would launch missiles against the warplanes once they took off. At least in movies, ROK president puts his/her national interests above the unequal relationship with Boss US.

Don't let that president exist in the movie only.