The trilateral South Korea-Japan-United States security pact got an early test last week, just hours before the summit announcement at Camp David, the US presidential retreat, when North Korea launched a ballistic missile, officials from the three allied countries confirmed on Tuesday.
In a historic step, and at the urging of US President Joe Biden, Tokyo and Seoul overcame decades of animosity, agreeing to work with the US on a series of defence measures: a more powerful early-warning missile detection system; annual comprehensive military exercises; a new three-way intelligence sharing pact and a “state of the art” hotline.
China, which has benefited from the long-standing distrust between the two neighbours, has expressed wariness over the deal.
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On Tuesday, US Indo-Pacific adviser Kurt Campbell said at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol had exhibited political bravery with the rapprochement.
While the risk remains that their cooperation could unwind, early signs of working together were seen shortly after Pyongyang reportedly launched a carrier rocket Chollima-1 carrying a spy satellite that crashed during its third stage. Although that launch failed, Pyongyang threatened to repeat its testing in October.
“We are trying to work on stronger coordination,” said Koji Tomita, Japan’s ambassador to Washington, also at CSIS. “After the failed satellite launch a few days ago, the foreign ministers immediately consulted over the telephone. So this is something that underpins the stronger and deeper trilateral cooperation.”
Tomita said that while Japan and South Korea have strong separate security alliances with the US, they have also long obsessed over what advantage they could gain over the other. Now the focus is on bolstering the weaker third side of the triangle and figuring out what the two neighbours can do together, he said.
Campbell said that the three countries have developed detailed playbooks letting them respond quickly to any provocation in the region.
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In the past, rocket launches tended to signal North Korea’s desire for dialogue. Now, though, that dynamic has changed.
“It appears to each of us that, increasingly, these military steps are about modernising their arsenal and doing so in ways that are deeply concerning to the region as a whole,” Campbell said.
Since February 2019, when then-President Donald Trump left Vietnam after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the US has had no dialogue with Pyongyang “through any channel, through any mechanism”, Campbell added.
Beijing has bridled at the trilateral deal, the latest move by the Biden administration to bolster its alliances globally in order to counter a more muscular China.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said last week that China was opposed to “bringing confrontation and military blocs into the Asia-Pacific region” and that “no country should seek its own security at the expense of the security interests of others”.
China attacks US ‘cold war’ Camp David talks with Japan and South Korea
However, Cho Hyundong, South Korea’s ambassador to the US, played down China’s reaction at CSIS. “We have seen some negative reactions by Chinese government,” Cho said. “But to me their reaction is more rhetorical than substantive.”
In contrast, Tomita said, China’s response to Japan’s release of treated radioactive water from its Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean has been anything but routine. The decision was made after months of study and careful consideration in close consultation with neighbours and the International Atomic Energy Agency, he added.
“The Chinese response was, in our view, out of proportion in its velocity. They have instigated very blistering attacks against our action, which we think is not based on science,” Tomita said.
Of greater concern, he added, was that “we started to see harassment directed against Japanese nationals living in China, stones are flying into Japanese schools in China”.
The three men noted that the security pact came as tensions grow in the region. Provocations have included recent naval exercises near Japan by Russian and Chinese vessels; growing Chinese movement in the South China Sea near the Philippines; and North Korea working more closely and strategically with Russia and China.
Last week’s failed launch flew over the southernmost Japanese islands of Okinawa before landing in the Pacific Ocean. Pyongyang’s space agency announced that, after studying what went wrong, it would attempt another launch in October, adding: “The cause of the relevant accident is not a big issue in terms of the reliability of cascade engines and the system.”
Cho countered on Tuesday that he would “just like to make clear to North Korea: the continued provocation, the continued violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions by North Korea will only strengthen the trilateral security cooperation”.
More from South China Morning Post:
- East Asia’s ‘seismic shift’: why China sees the Camp David summit as the start of a de facto military alliance
- US accuses Russia, China of covering for North Korea over missile launches
- US-Japan-South Korea summit marks ‘new era’ that delivers on defence, diplomacy and tech
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