Whether President Park Geun-hye should attend the ceremony in China to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression has become a hot topic in South Korea. According to a survey conducted by Realmeter, a Korean public opinion survey agency, more than half (51.8%) of South Koreans think Park Geun-hye should go to Beijing, 2.5 times more than the ones who are against this idea (20.6%). 27.6% of respondents answered the question with "I don't know". 

 

Seoul Shinmun, JoongAng Ilbo, Hankook Ilbo and other main stream press in Korea published editorials supporting Park Geun-hye to attend the ceremony in Beijing. Kyunghyang Shinmun said going to Beijing is the right choice, considering diplomatic, security and other national interests. 

 

The US has repeatedly denied the report that they tried to prevent Park Geun-hye from going to Beijing to attend the ceremony held in September. JoongAng Ilbo reported on Tuesday that the US called for President Park through diplomatic channels, not to attend the celebratory event in China and instead of the President, the US hopes South Korea could send the Ambassador. Mark Toner, the spokesperson of the US State Department denied this report and said the US did not put any pressure on South Korea on how they would like to participate in this event. Earlier, the State Department has already claimed that the US did not try to stop Park Geun-hye from going to Beijing. And the US did not request any other leader to do so. 

 

Diplomatic sources told JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday that even as Korea’s ally, the US has no right to interfere in such a sensitive issue. And the US does not want to cause unnecessary misunderstanding before the Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the US in September, hence the repeated denials from the State Department.