《中英對照讀新聞》Japan, S.Korea play hot potato with protest note 日本與南韓互丟燙手山芋抗議信
◎俞智敏
Japan recently refused to take back a letter sent by its own prime minister after Seoul said it would not accept delivery of the note, as a row over islands threatened to descend into diplomatic farce.
在南韓政府表示不願接受後,日本最近拒絕收回一封由日本首相親自寄出的信函,日韓兩國為了小島主權所產生的爭執恐惡化為外交鬧劇。
South Korea said earlier it would return the protest from Yoshihiko Noda without answering it, for fear any move to acknowledge the missive would bolster Tokyo’s claim to islands that both sides say they own.
南韓先前表示要退回日相野田所寫的抗議信,因為南韓擔心,如果收下這封正式公文就形同支持日方擁有小島主權的說法,日韓兩國都聲稱島嶼為其所有。
The letter to South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak has not even made it to Seoul, having been kept at the South’s embassy in Tokyo, foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-Young said, announcing the intention to hand the note back.
據南韓外交部發言人趙泰永表示,這封寫給南韓總統李明博的信根本就沒有送到首爾,而是保留在南韓駐東京大使館內,趙泰永也宣布南韓打算把信退還給日本。
But in what was beginning to look like a real live game of hot potato, the Japanese foreign ministry turned away a South Korean diplomat, believed to have been carrying Noda’s letter, at the gate of the ministry building. The letter was subsequently put in the post, registered delivery, a spokesman at the foreign ministry in Seoul said.
但在這愈來愈像是一場實況轉播的燙手山芋遊戲中,日本外交部竟然拒絕讓帶著這封信的南韓外交官進入外交部大門。南韓外交部發言人表示,這封信隨後被以掛號信方式郵寄回去。