●Nathan Shiga: November 9

What do you make out of ”comfort woman and shrimp”? Not a chance unless you know what they signify. While the two-word phrase means obvious to the Koreans, it is probably most puzzling to all – not to mention the visiting US President Donald Trump.

President Trump had wrapped up his “comforting” visit to Japan with Shinzo Abe in his company at every dinner table – shrimp or no shrimp. Both the leaders agreed on all matters on the agenda, symbolically on how to deal with North Korea and on ways to pull China into the game. Trump left Japan in high spirits on the eve of his big talk with Xi Jinping by way of South Korea where he was scheduled to stay only overnight.

Trump’s transit stop in Korea enraged the Koreans, as his arrival was met with a wave of protestors with No-Trump placards. Trump knew nothing then about comfort woman nor shrimp awaiting at his welcome reception.

That said, a solution is due here to the riddle of “comfort woman and shrimp”. Many of you might have heard of a wild unfounded clamor led by the Koreans over certain Korean women recruited to serve the soldiers in the field of the Japanese Imperial Army during WW2. You might have heard also of a Japanese island territory named Takeshima that the Koreans claim to be their own (Dokto).

Now, what was the point of the Korean President Moon Jae-in daring to invite one of the so-called “comfort women” to hug his state guest and offer for an hors-d’oeuvre a shrimp caught and shipped from Takeshima?

Moon Jae-in must be out of his mind playing, as it were, an alien drama on the very stage readied for forcing Kim Jong-un on his knees.

The message is plumply clear. The Korean leader was intently busy instigating antagonism toward Japan at a time when his country stands at the eleventh hour with Kim Jong-un ready to fly off the handle any moment. Moon Jae-in was playing a look-the-other-way to help Kim Jong-un win a desperate few moments of survival at a time the US, Japan, and Korea must be united to denuclearize North Korea.

Moon Jae-in can be as much a treacherous friend of Japan as an untrustworthy ally for the US.

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