I am interested by the mention of North Korea.
I recall that, when I was living in Beijing, the number two in the North Korean regime paid a visit to Japan, returning via Beijing where he made a bolt for the South Korean Embassy and defected.
He had not defected in Japan for reasons which Terpe will understand - there are a lot of North Korean supporters amongst the Japanese Korean community (it is sald that the North Korean regime gets most of its foreign exchange from pachinko parlours run by North-sympathising Japanese-Koreans) and felt safer in Beijing.
The North Koreans then mounted an attack on the South Korean Embassy, which caused a severe sense of humour failure amongst their Chinese hosts. After a few weeks of stalemate, the defector was permitted to fly to Manila, from where after a few more weeks, he went to Seoul.
I was struck by how involved the Phiippines was in making these arrangements.
Certainly a rapprochement between the Philippines and Japan could be good.
