제 21 호 S. Korea-U.S.-Japan Strengthen Trilateral Cooperation
Kicker: World
S. Korea-U.S.-Japan Strengthen
Trilateral Cooperation
by Si-ho Park, Reporter
Starting with the Camp David summit, South Korea, the U.S., and Japan have recently strengthened their cooperation and formed an alliance. These three countries are not the only ones who are strengthening their alliances. North Korea, Russia, and China are also forming their alliances, and these changes include various factors in international relations, such as the U.S.-China conflict and intensifying tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The trilateral alliance is a combination of cooperation not only in security, but also in other diverse fields, such as military, technology, and the economy. Let's take a closer look at the details of trilateral cooperation.
Purpose and Process of Strengthening Trilateral Cooperation
The leaders of South Korea, the United States, and Japan held a first stand-alone summit at Camp David, in August 2023, to reaffirm their commitment to trilateral consultations aimed at addressing regional conflicts, North Korea’s expanding threat, and shared interests through annual high-level dialogue meetings. It was the beginning of the trilateral security alliance of South Korea, the United States, and Japan. The purpose of strengthening cooperation between the three countries is to respond to diplomatic regional issues such as the deepening US-China conflict, competition for hegemony in the Indo-Pacific region, and intensifying tensions on the Korean Peninsula. They are eager to make the world safer and the three countries stronger through trilateral ties.
After the Camp David summit, the three countries began full cooperation. On October 22,the air forces of South Korea, the U.S., and Japan held their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise in response to evolving North Korean nuclear threats. Continually, the three countries continue to deepen trilateral defense cooperation, agreeing to start sharing real-time missile-warning data from December 2023 to better detect and assess North Korea’s increasingly frequent ballistic missile launches. Missile defense cooperation, particularly the sharing of missile-warning data, was one of the key elements of the Camp David agreements.
Besides, the three countries also launched a high-level consultative group on countering North Korean cyber activities that they say finances its unlawful weapons programs. They agreed with new initiatives on December 9 to respond to North Korea's threats in cyberspace, including cryptocurrency abuses and space launches. On January 5, 2024, they have expanded their security cooperation beyond North Korea with their Indo-Pacific Dialogue. South Korea, the U.S., and Japan held the first trilateral Indo-Pacific Dialogue in Washington, aimed at deterring Beijing from escalating threats in the region.
Through all these efforts together, the three countries are trying to continue to build upon their cooperation to respond to regional challenges and ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, in the Indo-Pacific, and beyond.
While South Korea, the U.S., and Japan are strengthening their cooperation, North Korea, China, and Russia are also growing their own alliance. The other three countries strengthening alliance is happening amid increasing pressure on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the ongoing war. And China is also feeling the heat of new restrictions related to access to technology.
https://thediplomat.com/2023/10/the-growing-china-north-korea-russia-axis-and-south-koreas-response/
Cooperation in Fields: Military Security, Technology, and Economy
The Trilateral Leaders’ Summit between the United States, Japan, and Korea at Camp David in August began building military security partnerships by stressing the importance of improving information sharing and coordination on real-time data tracking of North Korean missiles. However, it was not limited only to the security field, but also included economic and technological cooperation. The less-noticed parts of the agreement covered a lot of ground in supply chains, technology, and economic security among the three nations, which play a critical role in the key supply chains of semiconductors, electric vehicles (EVs), and batteries.
Basically, in the field of military security, South Korea, the U.S., and Japan have institutionalized military cooperation, including conducting systematic joint exercises and agreeing to share real-time data on North Korean missiles. By strengthening the trilateral military alliance, the U.S. has formed a new confrontation structure between the great powers over China and Russia, and South Korea has strengthened its checks on North Korea.
And as the U.S.-China strategic competition in key technology areas such as semiconductors intensified recently, the three countries are strengthening their partnership in other sectors than military security, with new alliances through “Chip 4.” They are expanding the cooperation scope to include economic security and advanced technology. The trilateral cooperation such as sharing North Korea's missile warning information, protects national security by sharing technical information from each country, so it can be said to be a technology security cooperation across multiple fields.
Meanwhile, The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) aims to hold regular business summits to promote cooperation with the Japan Business Federation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This suggests that the three countries will also strengthen cooperation in other areas, such as economy and management.
Despite the efforts of the three countries, there are some historical and geographical issues remaining in Korea-Japan relationships. Colonization and “comfort women” issues are still continuing, and the conflict over Dokdo has not been resolved. Therefore, concerns over the trilateral alliance have been raised constantly.
The alliance has become the biggest pillar in international politics. Understanding the confrontational relationship between the allies, which is formed around the conflict between the U.S. and China and is a major issue on the Korean Peninsula and will be of great help in understanding the international situation. I hope you could learn about how Korea should move forward and how we can build relationships with other countries. It could also be a way to raise your critical perspective by questioning whether the alliance is fueling global division.
Sources:
https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-south-korea-alliance
https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-japan-us-aerial-drills-fc04a9b22a04b118d774ed70837b7aeb
https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-south-korea-japan-launch-consultative-group-norths-cyber-threats-2023-11-06/
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-skorea-japan-security-advisors-seoul-trilateral-meeting-2023-12-09/
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/11/13/japan/politics/japan-us-south-korea-trilateral-analysis/
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-south-korea-japan-seek-to-expand-cooperation-to-counter-china-/7438392.html
https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/us-japan-korea-trilateral-cooperation-can-herald-new-era-economic-security
