Normalization of Japan-ROK Security Relationship

Taking the opportunity of multi-lateral meeting for international security, the defense ministers of Japan and the Republic of Korea held a bilateral meeting and agreed on resuming the dialogues between two countries to enhance security cooperation. Bilateral relationship between Japan and ROK has been interrupted since an incident in which a ROK vessel directed fire-control radar, an action which could be recognized as a prelude of use of fire arms, at a Japan’s patrol aircraft in 2018. Both countries have been realized a necessity for rebuilding their security cooperation, facing serious security challenges from China or North Korea.

Minister of Defense of Japan, Minoru Kihara, and Korea, Shin Won-sik, met in the backdrop of Shangri-la Dialogue, an international meeting for defense ministers hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies held at Singapore. Both ministers shared their interest to resume high-level exchange of personnel between Self-defense Force of Japan and ROK Force. They also agreed on having annual meeting on the level of Vice-ministers of defense.

 

Not to repeat the same incident in 2018, both ministers reconfirmed their obedience to the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, an international norm for avoiding unexpected military collision established at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium in 2014. But, they avoided determining the facts in the incident in 2018, concerning the sensitivity of the issue for both sides. In the incident occurred offshore of Noto Peninsula, Japan argued that a patrol aircraft of Marine Self-defense Force was exposed to fire-control radar from a ROK destroyer. ROK dismissed the Japan’s argument and asserted that the aircraft had been flying in dangerously low altitude.

 

The prime minister of Japan then was Shinzo Abe and ROK president was Moon Jae In. Their personal relationship was not based on firm confidence and the bilateral relationship between two nations had been said as the worst in post-World War II era. Under the leadership of pro-Japan president, Yoon Suk Yeol, the bilateral relationship has been on the track of improvement. Both defense ministers seem to try to remove obstruction against their security cooperation.

 

Considering regional security situation including threat of developing nuclear weapons and missiles by North Korea, both ministers insisted on the importance of the trilateral cooperation of Japan, ROK and the United States. In the meeting including US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, the next day, three defense ministers announced that those three countries would institutionalize their security cooperation, including having a trilateral joint exercise, Freedom Edge, this summer for the first time.

 

While China has been advancing in the South China Sea with irrelevant claims over maritime interests, and Russia keeps on challenging international order with its aggression to Ukraine, the trilateral framework of security cooperation is showing progress with reconciliation between Japan and ROK.