The defense chiefs of South Korea and Japan plan to hold their first bilateral talks in more than four years next month as the countries seek to mend their relationship in the face of historical and territorial feuds, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.
Defense Minister Han Min-koo will meet his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani on the sidelines of the Asia Security Summit in Singapore on May 29-31. They are expected to discuss ways to stave off North Korea’s growing threats in the wake of its recent ejection test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, such as by sharing intelligence more swiftly and effectively.
Nakatani is anticipated to brief Han on the recently amended U.S.-Japan bilateral defense guidelines which paved the way for Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense ― the use of force to aid allies under attack.
Han, for his part, will likely emphasize that the rules must be implemented in a transparent manner and Japanese forces can enter South Korean territory only at its request. The revision stipulates that the allies’ military actions will be in line with international laws and “full respect for the sovereignty of a third nation,” reflecting lingering resentment among South Koreans toward its onetime occupier.
They will also have a separate trilateral meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. The three countries sealed a trilateral arrangement on military intelligence in December.
“At the two-way talks, the ministers plan to discuss issues related to each country’s defense policy and how to enhance cooperation on North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats and other exchanges,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The tripartite meeting will explore ways to collaborate on North Korean threats, the new U.S.-Japan defense cooperation guidelines, and transnational and nonmilitary threats including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”
Hosted by the U.K.-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, the so-called Shangri-La Dialogue has set the stage for high-level security consultations between the two old foes. But the ministerial talks have not taken place since January 2011 as tension flared over wartime history and Japan’s claim to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.
The announcement came as Seoul is seeking to keep up practical cooperation with Tokyo and defuse Washington’s mounting pressure for a thaw through the “two-track approach,” under which it would sternly respond to the Shinzo Abe government’s historical and territorial provocations while working together on North Korea, the economy and other areas of mutual interests.
On Friday, South Korea and Japan will hold consultations to resolve their dispute over Tokyo’s campaign to list as UNESCO World Heritage sites major wartime industrial facilities where hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forced into slave labor.
The two countries’ finance and trade ministers are also set for their first bilateral talks in more than two years this weekend in Tokyo and the Philippines, respectively.
Last month, senior foreign affairs and defense officials from each side also met and discussed security policy in Seoul.
Senior officials of South Korea and Japan held their first security policy talks since 2009 in Seoul on Tuesday, as part of efforts to move their relationship forward amid escalating historical and territorial feuds.
