in the sometimes strained relations
between Japan and South Korea
the corona virus outbreak has exposed
the animosity that exists below the
surface South Korea says it wasn't
consulted before Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe a announced the new measures
visitors from both China and South Korea
will be required to be quarantined for
two weeks at the location designated by
the quarantine director and asked that
they refrain from using public
transportation in the country that
brought a swift response from Seoul
the Japanese ambassador was summoned for
an official reprimand we find this very
regrettable and urge the Japanese
government of its draw such an excessive
and unreasonable measure immediately our
government will devise a proper
countermeasure against Japan's measures
opponents in South Korea accused the
Japanese government of trying to deflect
criticism of its handling of the corona
virus outbreak in particular the
attempted quarantine of a cruise ship
that left hundreds of passengers
sickened while criticizing Japan's
efforts South Korea has been quick to
show the scale and transparency of its
own response which is won international
praise testing on an industrial scale
means thousands of people are being
checked for the virus every day South
Korea has been touted as an outstanding
example of releasing information in a
transparent and rapid manner in that
sense I believe that Japan's moved to
not fully take into account our central
and local governments efforts the
growing dispute between two leading
countries in the fight against this
global health emergency is worrying for
the international community the two
sides have long disagreed over trade and
the legacy of the second world war more
than a hundred countries now have travel
restrictions on people arriving from
South Korea but unlike many of them
Japan is a vital trading partner this
quarantine measure will cause further
economic pain and there's a lingering
suspicion here that politics not Public
Health
is the motivation behind it Rob McBride
al Jazeera Seoul pleased to welcome
Robert Kelley to the NewsHour professor
of international relations in political
science at Pusan National University
he's on skype from there nice to have
you with us mr. Kelly South Korea saying
that this move by Japan is regrettable I
can understand why they might say that
but you can also see from the Japanese
perspective why they would take such a
mirror has South Korea perhaps
overreacted a bit um yeah I would
actually say I think they have a little
bit I think a lot of it is really sort
of layered over with the sort of general
animosity there is in South Korea
regarding um Japanese foreign policy and
the legacy of the war um and so anything
that comes from Japan that seems single
out South Korea or sort of call it a
individually gets met sort of with
pushback particularly from the South
Korean left which currently holds the
presidency but yeah I a part of it also
too reflects the fact that the current
president of South Korea has not
actually imposed a travel ban on Chinese
coming into cru South Korea which and
he's being sort of blamed for that
leading to the sort of big outbreak here
that's happening right and now it looks
like the Japanese are doing it South
Koreans so the South Koreans feel sort
of compelled to kind of push back to I
think could or justify the decision not
to ban Chinese travelers it's kind of a
tangle other than talking about its
regret as South Korea has done what sort
of reaction would you expect for them
from them further from here well I think
the most obvious thing to do would be to
ban Japanese travelers in response right
and that of course gets tricky right
because Korea all with all three of them
right Korea Japan and China trade a
great deal right and not just tourism
which is obviously a problem now but I
mean all of them are high up trade
partners for one another so if they
start banning each other it actually
gets pretty tricky this has been sort of
the pressure on all of them to sort of
avoid cutting business links and stuff
like that I would imagine the Koreans
might consider tariffs or something like
that or restrictions on cultural imports
and they're all sort of small things
that the South Koreans can do to sort of
hit back but I mean until the South
Korean government gets the the virus
outbreak here under control which I
think is beginning to happen I think
that things are starting to turn in the
last couple days but until they do a lot
of countries you're gonna do with the
Japanese
actually what they're talking about
South Korea can I ask you you are self
isolating I believe is that right yeah
well look at the government is telling
people basically not to go anywhere um
you know might yeah I mean we're
basically sort of locked in our house I
mean my my job has been I'm a college
professor I'm not teaching right now
they've just they just canceled class
the next two weeks
my kids are in kindergarten that's also
been cancelled so we're basically just
stuck in the house yeah how's that going
I mean we obviously we all know your
kids we've seen them I'm hoping they
were had a great free spirit when we saw
them on that famous interview now how
are they coping with being cooped up in
the house not well yeah three spirits
are not good with you know a couple of
rooms in an apartment yeah I mean we
live in an apartment um and and there's
just not a lot of place for them to go
right to sort of crawling the walls and
stuff like that I mean it is actually
rather tough and this is something
you're hearing all over South Korea
right that parents having a lot of
trouble managing their kids you know and
people having trouble staying home from
work right i mean people got to go to
work they got to go to the grocery store
I'm actually kind of wondering what the
government's gonna do if they're still
telling us in a month that we can't
leave our house I mean we're now
ordering food over the Internet
we're not allowed to take our kids the
jungle gym they've closed the the gym
and the gym in my building I mean it's
just there's just like nothing you can
do inside the complex anymore and the
streets are empty I wonder how much
longer the government can sustain this
right so this is going beyond the 14
days which we hear about for most people
who sort of if you've been to X country
and you come back from there then you
should self isolate for two weeks
because that's the apparent incubation
period but you're just talking about an
open ended pretty much don't go out well
that's what the government has told us
right I mean we're sort of you know I
mean we're not you know not many people
are ever dimmi ologists of course so
we're sort of following what the
government says and right now yeah it's
something of a blanket recommendation
that you don't go outside that you stay
in that you avoid large groups of people
that you don't really go to any kind of
congregation of any kind right I mean
don't go to a concert don't go to church
don't go to you know don't go to I don't
know you know go run a run a race or
something I mean just stay away from
people almost all together and that's
what's so difficult right because that
basically means the kids
just can't leave the house right and and
and that's just it's just you're you're
just everybody's just getting cabin
fever right you can see it when I you
know I see it when I talk to friends
mind to they're all struggling with the
same issue right like how do you sort of
manage all this time indoors Robert
Kelly good to talk to you
best wishes the family hope it all goes
well thank you thank you thanks for
having