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The South Korean Ministry of National Defense (MND) uploaded a video on YouTube titled

After South Korea released a video refuting Japan’s claims that a South Korean destroyer had aimed its targeting radar at a Japanese patrol plane and accusing the plane of making a threatening low-altitude approach to the destroyer, a brawl has broken out online between netizens from the two countries. Though some of the participants are focusing on the facts, there has been no shortage of hateful remarks containing slurs and slander against the other side.

The Korean-language video titled “Japan needs to apologize for interrupting a humanitarian rescue operation and to immediately stop distorting the facts,” which South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense posted to YouTube on Jan. 4, has racked up over 1.74 million views as of 4:30 pm on Jan. 7. The “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” buttons under the video – indicating that viewers either agree or disagree with the content – have both been clicked more than 80,000 times. The English-language version of the video posted by the Defense Ministry on the same day has been viewed more than 500,000 times, with support and opposition indicated by more than 40,000 people on each side.

Over 57,000 comments have been posted to the Korean-language video. Interspersed among comments discussing what actually happened in the incident are a boatload of criticism and name-calling of the other side. Some Korean commenters unloaded their discontent with Japan, while quite a few Japanese netizens bashed South Korea as “a country that only tells lies.”

Experts suspect that the Japanese government’s decision to post a video that would spark a battle for public opinion instead of resolving the issue through intergovernmental deliberations was motivated by the desire to redefine its relationship with South Korea in terms of hatred. This has caused Japanese frustration over the historical conflict, including the South Korean Supreme Court’s decision that forced laborers should be compensated by Japanese companies, to spill over into distrust of South Korea into the military sphere.

“Japan is very upset with the South Korean government for not doing anything about their historical conflict, including the judgment about the forced laborers, and has apparently been trying to pressure it by attempting to present Koreans as untrustworthy in the court of international public opinion. Prime Minister Abe is adroit at using a narrative of hatred against his neighbors to bolster his own political position. He appears to be doing this to achieve his goals of increasing defense spending and revising the constitution,” said Yang Gi-ho, a professor at Sungkonghoe University.

There’s no precedent in South Korea-Japan relations for the two countries to post videos that dispute the facts of an incident and trigger an online scuffle between netizens from the two countries. Since South Korea’s Defense Ministry is planning to post more videos in other languages – including Chinese, Russian, French, Spanish, and Arabic – within the week, the spat between Korean and Japanese netizens is sure to intensify.

“Even now, South Korea-Japan relations are such that it’s hard to have normal, constructive dialogue. I’m concerned that this will set a precedent for various diplomatic issues in the future,” said Yang.

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]