South Korea Tells Trump It's Actually Never Been a Part of China

[GennGreymane]

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/a...-part-of-china

South Korea’s government wants to know whether Chinese President Xi Jinping gave alternative facts on the nation’s history to Donald Trump.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, Trump said Xi told him during a recent summit that “Korea actually used to be a part of China.” The comments sparked outrage in Seoul and became an issue in South Korea’s presidential race, prompting the foreign ministry to seek to verify what Xi actually said.

“It’s a clear fact acknowledged by the international community that, for thousands of years in history, Korea has never been part of China,” foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck said at a briefing in Seoul on Thursday.

Trump has sought to get China -- North Korea’s main ally and benefactor -- to do more to persuade dictator Kim Jong Un to stop conducting nuclear and missile tests. Xi’s explanation of the historical relationship made Trump realize that it’s “not so easy” for China to influence North Korea to give up its nuclear program, the newspaper quoted the U.S. president as saying.

Candidates for South Korea’s May 9 presidential election weighed in on the issue, which comes as the nation’s relations with China are already strained over moves to deploy a U.S. missile defense system on its soil.

“This is clearly a distortion of history and an invasion of the Republic of Korea’s sovereignty," conservative Liberty Korea Party candidate Hong Joon-pyo said through a spokesman.

A representative for Democratic Party of Korea candidate Moon Jae-in demanded to find out the full context of Xi’s comment. Ahn Cheol-soo’s People’s Party said that, if true, it would be regrettable for China to distort history in an international diplomacy setting.

Chinese dynasties invaded the Korean Peninsula repeatedly over the centuries and demanded tributes, but South Koreans reject the idea that their ancestors were ever ruled by their neighbor.

[NED funded]

Whether it was on purpose or not, that has to be the most clever joke I've heard this month.

[BadguyNotBadGuy]

“This is clearly a distortion of history and an invasion of the Republic of Korea’s sovereignty,"

thats... thats not how an invasion of sovereignty works... he just said some words man

[Grimbold21]

Fake or alternative history.

Trump the revisionist!

[Elim Garak]

Actually China controlled northern part of the peninsula thousands of years ago.

[Scyclone]

Actually China controlled northern part of the peninsula thousands of years ago.

Yup, basically this.

[Amalaric]

Actually China controlled northern part of the peninsula thousands of years ago.

And they control the northern part of the peninsula today.

[Deleted]

Uh, didnt the Han dynasty control the Korean peninsula?

edit: a quick google search shows it controlled the northern part, so i guess not South Korea.

[Elim Garak]

Uh, didnt the Han dynasty control the Korean peninsula?

edit: a quick google search shows it controlled the northern part, so i guess not South Korea.

There were no South Korea back then, the true Korea is North Korea.

[JohnBrown1917]

Actually China controlled northern part of the peninsula thousands of years ago.

Thus not Korea in its entirety.

[Elim Garak]

Thus not Korea in its entirety.

Entire Korea at the time, with the capital (Pyongyang) and stuff.

Actually southern part become prominent during that period due to trade with China.

[Xeones]

I thought they had been conquered by the Yuan Dynasty (Mongols) but apparently they were just vassals.