South Korea and Japan have been the United States’ two main allies in East Asia for decades, and it has long troubled Washington that the pair did not get along.
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.
In recent years, the United States has found the need for diplomatic rapprochement between its East Asian allies more urgent than ever as it seeks to mobilize like-minded partners to face common threats, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s economic and military ambitions and North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons program.
Against this backdrop, ties between Seoul and Tokyo are beginning to thaw. In March, the two countries began taking steps to address a long-running dispute over wartime forced labour. This week, South Korea restored Japan’s status as a privileged trading partner, and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol drew attention in his home country after declaring that Japan should no longer be expected to “kneel because of our history 100 years ago. ”
As Mr. Yoon visits Washington this week for a state dinner on Wednesday and a speech to Congress the next day, President Biden and other US officials will discuss ways to continue the momentum toward détente. This is why it is crucial to Washington’s strategy in Asia and beyond.
Alliances are crucial in a changing world.
The United States has tried to persuade its allies in the Indo-Pacific to work more closely together by building a variety of partnerships, such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, the advisory body of the Quad with four countries, the AUKUS- security pact, the Chip 4 alliance and the Partners in the Blue Pacific initiative.
A strong bilateral partnership between Japan and South Korea had long been on Washington’s wish list, but the troubled relationship prevented it.
Now both Tokyo and Seoul are moving closer to Washington as China promotes an alternative world view in which the United States has less power.
Both countries supported Washington’s “free and open” Indo-Pacific vision and attended a NATO summit last summer where leaders condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and expressed concern over China’s threat to destroy the international rules-based order. undermine.
Both countries have realized 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.
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has called South Korea “an important neighbor with whom we should cooperate.” South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol has urged his country 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 is expanding its 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, they 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.
Global supply chains are more fragile.
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.
But in an atmosphere of increasing threat to global supply chains due to war and geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, in particular, Japan and South Korea are moving towards better mutual support.
Last month, 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. Mr. Yoon’s government recently expressed hope of attracting Japanese companies to a $228 billion semiconductor complex that 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.
Tensions with China over Taiwan are rising.
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 various ways,” Kim Han-kwon, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul, wrote in a statement. paper 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. Washington has also vowed to protect its allies through “extensive deterrence,” a commitment to use the full range of U.S. weapons — including nuclear capabilities — in the event of conflict.
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 strengthen its ability to defend Taiwan.