Internationalism No. 73, March 2025 Page 13 Joong Ang Ilbo , a newspaper associated with the Samsung group, the second largest in South Korea, writes that Tokyo’s "meticulous preparations" for the February 7th talks in Washington between its Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Donald Trump, “intended to mitigate the potential repercussions of the proverbial” and vaunted “unpredictability” of the American president, “offer valuable lessons” for Seoul. Korea is today shaken by the worst political-institutional crisis since the coup d’état of December 1979. with the impeachment and arrest for “insurrection” of President Yoon Suk-yeol, after his attempt to establish martial law and close Parliament on December 3rd. For the international media, Ishiba’s performance was “a masterful exercise in flattery diplomacy”, aimed at obtaining “Trump’s favour”. But for Joong-Ing his traditional “courtesy diplomacy” can not be dismissed as “mere submission” and “flatt...