Japan, South Korea strengthen security cooperation amid growing threat from North Korea

Japanese and South Korean leaders Fumio Kishida and Yun Seok Yeol held their first summit in Tokyo on Thursday in 12 years, where they decided to strengthen ties against Pyongyang’s arms advance hours after South Korea launches an ICBM. .

Kishida and Yun committed to strengthening bilateral security cooperation and working with the United States to respond to developments in North Korea about their nuclear and missile programs in a joint statement after today’s summit.

Yoon’s trip comes after Seoul recently announced a plan to settle a longstanding dispute between the two countries over the forced labor of South Koreans under Japanese colonization. North Korea conducted a test of a new rocket.

The two sides agreed to resume security talks and to “promote close cooperation and take decisive action with the United States” prior to weapons tests like the one that took place today. North KoreaKishida said.

intelligence treaty

In a similar vein, Yoon noted that the two countries would “fully normalize” their military intelligence exchange pact. “I think that the two countries should be able to exchange information about launches and trajectories of nuclear missiles from North Koreaand respond to them,” he added.

Both countries currently share their radar data, which allows them to detect North Korean missile launches, for example, under the so-called Common Military Information Security Agreement (GSOMIA), although this exchange is not real-time. .

This exchange can help Japan detect launches faster North Korea to improve their anti-missile shields and alert the population and, in general, will provide more detailed information on launch points, flight paths and projectile impact points to strengthen response systems in both countries.

Tokyo and Seoul also agreed to resume the process of trilateral security talks with Beijing at the vice ministerial level, which had been put on hold “after a long time,” Kishida said.

economic security

Yoon and Kishida also said they would start a dialogue on economic security after Tokyo announced today that it was lifting current export restrictions on a number of products affecting South Korea’s semiconductor industry, and Seoul withdrew a protest it filed with the organization. Organization (WTO) for this reason.

In 2019 South Korea filed a protest with the WTO over Japan’s restrictions that summer on exports to the neighboring country of basic chemical materials for the production of screens and memory chips, which are the main pillar of South Korean exports.

Japan At the time, he claimed the measure was in response to perceived weaknesses in South Korean control over these materials, but Seoul believed it was in response to a South Korean Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to Japanese companies. compensation to Koreans who were in slavery during the colonial period (1910-1945).

Victim Compensation

Yoon’s visit this week was made possible by the approval of a compensation plan unveiled two weeks ago in Seoul for these people enslaved during World War II, which drew criticism from victims and relatives because it is funded with money from South Korea and other countries. Japanese companies.

“President Yun has strong leadership that led to the decision South Korea be compensated,” Kishida said, adding that his country “will repay South Korea for its kindness in the future.”

For his part, Yoon said that “after the compensation, relations between the two countries will be normalized and that this will help solve the security threats surrounding us,” and said that “the country’s national interests are fully aligned with those of Japan.” . .

According to a recent poll released by the think tank Gallup, 59% of South Koreans would oppose this system of compensation, while another 64% believe there is “no rush” to improve relations with Tokyo.

Ties between neighboring countries reached their lowest level in decades under President Moon Jae-in’s former liberal government of South Korea, but relations are expected to improve under the Yun administration, which has ensured the two countries’ ability to deal with “past and future problems.” ” simultaneously.

(As reported by EFE)

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Fernando Carvallo selects information and shares his vision of national and international news. subscribe to our mailing list