Korean Air’s Nationalistic Showmanship
Last month, Korean Air’s new A380 airliner took a publicity “test flight” over the Liancourt Rocks, islets that are claimed by both Japan and South Korea.
From an official Japanese government standpoint, the test flight was conducted over Japanese territorial airspace. However, the area has been under South Korea’s effective control since its military seized and occupied the rocks in the 1950′s.
Japanese Foreign Ministry responded to Korean Air’s action by asking its diplomats to refrain from using the airline for one month:
Given the short duration of the “boycott” and fact that Japanese diplomats almost always fly on Japanese airlines, it was a very weak response.
Nonetheless, the South Korean government and media seems to be making a big stink out of it, beating their nationalistic drums with stories about how Japan is boycotting their airline. Apparently the South Korean government is even threatening “countermeasures” against Japan, which could include a Korean boycott of Japanese airlines.
It seems that this is has been some pretty good PR for Korean Air. The Japanese Foreign Ministry’s one-month of restraint would have had almost zero impact on the airline’s profits. The test flight itself probably received very little attention when it first took place. Now, thanks to the Korean backlash against Japan’s puny boycott, Korean Air is getting all kinds of positive media coverage in its own country. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Japanese people don’t know or care about what’s going on, and many will continue traveling via Korean Air.
Related story: The Korea Times & Korea’s Northeast Asia History Foundation have awarded prize money to foreign students who wrote essays supporting Korea’s territorial claim to the islets.
[hat tip to ROK Drop]
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