Global Courant 2023-05-07 12:09:34
For years, the forces that drove South Korea and Japan apart, deeply rooted in a bitter history, seemed too strong to overcome, despite repeated efforts and urging from their mutual ally, the United States.
South Koreans say Japan has never properly apologized or atoned for its brutal colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945. To the Japanese, South Korea has often been an untrustworthy neighbor that has broken several promises, including treaty agreements which were intended to heal historical wounds.
But the arrival of two new governments in neighboring countries – President Yoon Suk Yeol in South Korea and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Japan – has led to a rapid thawing of relations.
In March, the two countries began taking steps to address a long-running dispute over wartime forced labour. In April, South Korea restored Japan’s status as a preferred trading partner, prompting Tokyo to begin the process of restoring the same status to South Korea. And Mr. Yoon then attracted attention in his homeland declare that Japan should no longer be expected to “kneel because of our history from 100 years ago”.
Now Mr. Kishida is making a personal visit to South Korea, in a meeting closely watched for new signs of progress. Here are some of the global forces behind their mutual reach.
Tension with China and Russia
Tokyo and Seoul seek closer alignment with Washington as China promotes an alternative vision of the world in which the United States has less power, and as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raises the alarm about a new era of militarization.
Both countries supported the “free and open” Indo-Pacific vision of the Biden administrationwho attended a NATO summit last summer where leaders condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and expressed concern over China’s threat to undermine the international rules-based order.
Both countries have recognized that the rapidly changing geopolitical environment has created challenges that they cannot handle alone. The joint maneuvers of Chinese and Russian military jets in recent years near South Korean and Japanese airspace helped convey that message.
Mr. Kishida now calls South Korea “an important neighbor with whom we should cooperate”. And Mr. Yoon has urged South Koreans to no longer view Japan as “a militaristic aggressor of the past”, but as “a partner who shares the same universal values”.
The trilateral relationship with South Korea and Japan “is central to our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, which is why I, along with other senior department colleagues, have invested so much time and focus in this crucial partnership,” he said. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in March.
North Korea’s nuclear arsenal
North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threat provided impetus for Seoul and Tokyo to recognize the strategic value of building trilateral cooperation with the United States. In recent months, North Korea has not only fired missiles over Japan, but also threatened to launch a nuclear strike against South Korea.
South Korea has never been in a formal alliance with Japan and has been reluctant to cooperate militarily with the country outside of humanitarian search and rescue missions on the high seas. But they are now expanding military cooperation, mainly because of North Korea.
When the leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea met in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last November, agreed to share real-time North Korean missile warning data. The three countries have also expanded their trilateral missile defense and other military exercises in recent months.
One of the steps Seoul took in March to restore ties with Tokyo was to formally restore a bilateral military intelligence-sharing agreement that helps protect the two neighbors from North Korean missiles. At the height of the dispute on wartime forced labor in 2019, Seoul announced plans to end the accord.
Vulnerable global supply chains
That same year, 2019, Japan imposed restrictions on the export of chemicals essential to South Korea’s semiconductor industry. Seoul filed a complaint against Tokyo with the World Trade Organization. Both countries have removed each other from their so-called white list of preferential trading partners.
Recently, however, Tokyo and Seoul agreed to lift those export controls, and Seoul withdrew its WTO complaint. Seoul and Tokyo also agreed to start an “economic security dialogue” to discuss cooperation on key technologies and supply chains. The government of Mr. Yoon recently expressed the hope of attracting Japanese companies a $228 billion semiconductor complex South Korea plans to build near Seoul by 2042.
South Korea is the world’s largest producer of memory chips, and Japan supplies tools and materials essential for making chips. Last year, Washington proposed the so-called Chip 4 Alliance with the two allies and Taiwan to keep China at bay in the battle for global semiconductor supply chains.
Growing fear of Taiwan
Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have a strong common interest in preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Security analysts fear China could try to invade Taiwan, similar to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. If that were to happen, some experts warn that North Korea could take the opportunity to start a war on the Korean peninsula and realize its own territorial ambitions.
Such a move would open two simultaneous fronts for the US military in the region.
“If a clash breaks out in the Taiwan Strait, the United States will demand cooperation from its allies and partner countries in a variety of ways,” said Kim Han-kwon, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul. wrote in a newspaper in February. “It sees its bilateral alliances with South Korea and Japan in particular as important regional strategic assets in relation to the Taiwan Strait.”
Japan and South Korea have been able to prosper economically, in part due to the security provided by the United States by maintaining a large military presence in both countries. Now the United States wants all its allies to play a greater role in regional defense.
In addition to South Korea and Japan, Washington has recently taken steps to strengthen its military ties with Australia, India and the Philippines to counterbalance China’s influence in the region and improve its ability to defend Taiwan.
