Informal Institute for National Security Thinkers and Practitioners

Quotes of the Day:

The 1919 Korean Declaration of Independence:

We hereby declare that Korea is an independent state and that Koreans are a self-governing people. We proclaim this fact to all nations to reaffirm the great truth that all humans are equal, so that our descendants may forever enjoy their rights to live as an autonomous people.

...

Our Three Pledges

First, our declaration of independence today represents the wish of our people to safeguard and advance justice and human principles in their lives. Therefore, we shall only spread the spirit of freedom far and wide and avoid from being exclusive of others.

Second, everyone, down to the last of us, shall represent the voice of our people’s rightful will.

Third, all actions shall be respectful of order to demonstrate our honorable cause and rightful conduct.

On the first day of March, in the four thousand two hundred fifty-second year since the founding of our nation(1919).

https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/us-losangeles-en/brd/m_4394/view.do?seq=761378

"As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science with inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying."

- Arthur C. Clarke

"Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty."

- Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

1. Republic of Korea National Day - United States Department of State

2. US, Japan, South Korea to announce deeper defense cooperation at Camp David summit

3. Camp David summit to put new icing on the trilateral cake

4. Can Japan and South Korea Unite to Face the Chinese Threat?

5. Yoon says Japan is partner sharing universal values, pursuing common interests

6. #Korea: #Japan: To Camp David for an alliance to answer #PRC predation.

7. Space on agenda for Biden's trilateral summit with S. Korea, Japan

8. America’s Window of Opportunity in Asia

9. Pyongyang opposes UNSC meeting on N. Korea's human rights

10. Tensions rise on Korean Peninsula as US announces major war games and Kim Jong Un orders increase in munitions production

11. US says no plan to expand Quad despite interest from South Korea

12. U.S. Army captain’s memoirs of Korean Liberation Army and anti-Japanese operation

13. Upgrading trilateral cooperation to new level

14. Korean unification movement launched at National Assembly

15. N. Korea's Kim, Russia's Putin exchange letters, vow stronger ties

16. How to implement Washington Declaration

17. Historical amnesia (Korea)

18. Summit to set protocol for trilateral ties

1. Republic of Korea National Day - United States Department of State

Republic of Korea National Day - United States Department of State

state.gov · by Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Republic of Korea National Day

Press Statement

August 14, 2023

On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, I extend my warm congratulations to the Republic of Korea as you celebrate your National Day.

Today, I want to reaffirm the strength of our Alliance in its 70th year and celebrate our strategic partnership, acknowledging the shared values that form the foundation of our strong bond. The United States remains committed to achieving a truly global partnership between our countries, including by expanding people-to-people ties, investing in economic growth, and upholding international peace and stability. We have accomplished much together, and I look forward to many more years of U.S.-ROK friendship.

Best wishes to the people of the Republic of Korea for a joyous National Day.

state.gov · by Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

2. US, Japan, South Korea to announce deeper defense cooperation at Camp David summit

I hope we will see a Northeast Asia Security Pact.

Integrated Missile Defense

Combined/Joint Exercises and interoperability training.

Cyber security cooperation

Global military coordination and operations

NATO integration (Nato and Asia Pacific 4 (AP4) - Japan, Korea, New Zealand, and Australia or IP4 as some are calling thee INDOPACIFIC 4).

But the past presents a high bar for expectations:

Camp David has been the site of significant moments of diplomacy.

In the midst of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at the retreat — then known as Shangri-La — for planning of the Italian campaign that would knock Benito Mussolini out of the war.

President Jimmy Carter hosted Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978 for talks that established a framework for a historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in March 1979.

President Bill Clinton in 2000 brought then-Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Camp David in an unsuccessful bid for a conflict-ending accord.

US, Japan, South Korea to announce deeper defense cooperation at Camp David summit

AP · by AAMER MADHANI · August 14, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States, Japan and South Korea are expected to announce plans for expanded military cooperation on ballistic missile defenses and technology development in the face of growing concern about North Korea’s nuclear program when the countries’ leaders gather at Camp David for a summit Friday, according to two senior Biden administration officials.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning for the summit, said the announcements will be part of a broad set of initiatives that will be unveiled as President Joe Biden hosts Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for the one-day gathering at the presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains.

The summit is the first Biden has held during his presidency at Camp David and comes amid a thaw in the historically complicated relationship between Japan and South Korea. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

The White House is looking to build on the recent diplomatic momentum and aims to use the summit for “institutionalizing, deepening and thickening the habits of cooperation” between the three countries as they face an increasingly complicated Pacific, one official said.

Earlier Monday, North Korea state media reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered a drastic increase in production of missiles and other weapons. Kim’s push to produce more weapons comes as U.S. officials believe Russia’s defense minister recently talked with North Korea about selling more weapons to Russia for its war with Ukraine.

Japan and South Korea have been rapidly mending their ties as they deepen three-way security cooperation with Washington in response to growing regional threats from North Korea and an increasingly assertive China.

The ties have improved rapidly since March after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government announced an initiative to resolve disputes stemming from compensation for wartime Korean forced laborers.

Last month, Japan reinstated South Korea as a preferred nation with fast-track trade status, ending a four-year economic row that was further strained during their bitter historic disputes. The three countries also announced in June that they would begin to share in real-time early warning threat data of North Korean missile launches by the end of the year.

Biden plans to take Kishida and Yoon on a walk of the Camp David grounds and will host the leaders for an intimate lunch, the officials said. While Biden will hold one-on-one conversations with both leaders, the three leaders will spend the bulk of the visit together, the officials said.

One official said the gathering at Camp David is meant to drive home that the progress made between South Korea and Japan is a “big deal” and that it’s critical that the relationship “only move forward.”

The leaders are expected to be dressed in shirtsleeves without ties for the private portions of Friday’s Camp David meetings. The leaders are also expected to take part in a joint news conference at the end of the summit.

Camp David has been the site of significant moments of diplomacy.

In the midst of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at the retreat — then known as Shangri-La — for planning of the Italian campaign that would knock Benito Mussolini out of the war.

President Jimmy Carter hosted Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978 for talks that established a framework for a historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in March 1979.

President Bill Clinton in 2000 brought then-Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Camp David in an unsuccessful bid for a conflict-ending accord.

AP · by AAMER MADHANI · August 14, 2023

3. Camp David summit to put new icing on the trilateral cake

Excerpts:

For Korea, the central issue has been and always will be the division of the Korean peninsula and the ongoing threat of the North Korean regime to seek reunification by military means. While Seoul worries about the Sino-Russian partnership that has emboldened Pyongyang, Korean policymakers are reluctant to be drawn into an overt balancing strategy against the PRC.

For Japan, while North Korea is a shared threat, the main security focus is on China and on the tightening alliance between China and Russia, propelled by the Ukraine war. The possibility of Chinese use of force in resolving the Taiwan question has become a much more urgent issue as a result.

But the Japanese also reflect the same views as Koreans about the need to avoid a path toward full-scale economic war with China and to continue to seek ways to engage Beijing.

“Amid the intensifying rivalry between the United States and China, Japan finds itself in an increasingly delicate situation, caught between its security guarantor and its leading economic partner,” former Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Tanaka Hitoshi wrote recently.

“As a staunch ally of the United States, Japan is committed to reinforcing the alliance framework to deter unilateral changes to the status quo and uphold regional stability. At the same time, despite significant debate and diverse views on its China policy, Japan’s geographic proximity, extensive people-to-people connections, and strong economic ties with China mean that it must carefully navigate tensions and avert unnecessary instability or chaos.”

Ironically, that is true as well for the US although its current political climate does not allow a frank discussion of this reality, though that is changing slightly.

Camp David summit to put new icing on the trilateral cake

US, Japan, S Korea leader meeting expected to issue joint declaration in next step toward a trilateral alliance aimed at China and N Korea

asiatimes.com · by Daniel Sneider · August 15, 2023

When the leaders of Japan and South Korea join US President Joe Biden at Camp David on August 18, it will cap a year of remarkable progress in bringing relations in the region back from the depths of dysfunction.

The summit will showcase the attempts by the Biden administration to institutionalize trilateral security cooperation – tying the three countries into a pseudo-alliance built on intelligence sharing, missile defense, cybersecurity and strengthened nuclear deterrence.

For American security officials, these steps have gained fresh urgency from the tightening of another alliance – among North Korea, China and Russia. In an eerie echo of the Korean War, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made a highly symbolic visit to Pyongyang in late July, along with a senior Chinese Communist Party official.

The irony is that Moscow is now seeking arms from North Korea, rather than providing them. In any case, the Kim Jong Un regime now feels emboldened, marrying new missile tests with bombastic threats.

The Pyongyang axis was perhaps also energized by the efforts of the US to shore up its pledge to both Seoul and Tokyo of nuclear deterrence – so-called “extended deterrence.”

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in July 2023 on the occasion of North Korea’s celebration of ‘victory’ in the Korean War. Photo: Russian Defense Ministry

Before the Shoigu visit, the US and South Korea convened the first official meeting of a new Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) in Seoul, attended by senior US national security official Kurt Campbell and designed to reassure Koreans of the American pledge to come to their defense and deter a North Korean nuclear attack. The meeting was dramatized by the visit of an American nuclear missile-armed submarine to South Korea, the first since 1981.

The Camp David summit will offer some new icing on the trilateral cake that has been baking for the past year. That will take the form of a joint declaration, still under negotiation, that will set out a shared security perception and interests, with some reference to North Korea and China as well as the war in Ukraine.

An agreement on mutual consultation in case of crisis and the convening of annual trilateral summits is also on the summit agenda and so are economic security issues like cooperation on semiconductors and technology ties to China.

But this is short of what the Americans originally had on the agenda.

The Americans want to create a trilateral extended deterrence dialogue – broadening, in effect, the NCG created with South Korea. But senior American and Korean officials in Washington told this writer that these plans were opposed by both the Japanese and Korean governments.

Japanese officials are wary of any multilateral nuclear discussions, which are considered beyond the political limits in Tokyo. And the Koreans do not want to dilute the importance of their bilateral Washington Declaration, adopted earlier this year in the Biden-Yoon summit.

The Camp David summit is actually a rescheduling of a meeting that was planned for the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Hiroshima but did not take place due to Biden’s need to rush home to deal with the U.S. debt limit negotiations.

US security officials had hoped to follow up on earlier agreements to share missile defense information in real-time, formalized at the trilateral defense ministers meeting in June in Singapore, and the establishment of trilateral joint exercises for anti-submarine and missile defense.

The last sit-down among Yoon Suk Yeol (left), Fumio Kishida (right) and Joe Biden (center) was on the sidelines of the 2022 NATO summit. Photo: C-SPAN screenshot

Locking in the gains

The symbolism of a stand-alone summit at Camp David, site of many famous meetings, will still capture the headlines. But behind this lie serious concerns about the fragility of this progress, no matter how much it will be celebrated in all three capitals.

The Biden administration is trying to lock in the gains of the past year to create structures of cooperation that can endure beyond the current administrations in power in Seoul and Tokyo. Lurking behind that is a fear, strongly felt in Japan and South Korea, that the US elections could return to power an American president who has no real commitment to these alliances.

There are considerable forces in both Japan and South Korea that seek to undermine, if not reverse, what has taken place in the past year. Both South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida suffer from low popularity and ongoing challenges to their leadership.

Serious unresolved issues in the realm of wartime historical justice could re-emerge at any moment. And there are gaps in strategic perception among the three countries that remain largely unaddressed, especially in Washington.

The failure to forge an effective regional trade strategy on the part of the Biden administration undermines whatever progress has been made on trilateral security. The most obvious and effective vehicle for cooperation remains the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

There would be a clear benefit if South Korea joined the CPTPP, particularly if China seeks to join the grouping. But the Biden administration, for domestic political reasons, can offer no public push for that move.

While South Korea and Japan are bound by their alliance with the US, they do not share the same priorities.

For Korea, the central issue has been and always will be the division of the Korean peninsula and the ongoing threat of the North Korean regime to seek reunification by military means. While Seoul worries about the Sino-Russian partnership that has emboldened Pyongyang, Korean policymakers are reluctant to be drawn into an overt balancing strategy against the PRC.

For Japan, while North Korea is a shared threat, the main security focus is on China and on the tightening alliance between China and Russia, propelled by the Ukraine war. The possibility of Chinese use of force in resolving the Taiwan question has become a much more urgent issue as a result.

But the Japanese also reflect the same views as Koreans about the need to avoid a path toward full-scale economic war with China and to continue to seek ways to engage Beijing.

“Amid the intensifying rivalry between the United States and China, Japan finds itself in an increasingly delicate situation, caught between its security guarantor and its leading economic partner,” former Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Tanaka Hitoshi wrote recently.

“As a staunch ally of the United States, Japan is committed to reinforcing the alliance framework to deter unilateral changes to the status quo and uphold regional stability. At the same time, despite significant debate and diverse views on its China policy, Japan’s geographic proximity, extensive people-to-people connections, and strong economic ties with China mean that it must carefully navigate tensions and avert unnecessary instability or chaos.”

Ironically, that is true as well for the US although its current political climate does not allow a frank discussion of this reality, though that is changing slightly.

Camp David sign. Photo: About Camp David

Politics of normalization

The greatest source of potential challenges to this progress toward a trilateral security pact is the attempt to push ahead in Korea-Japan relations without really resolving the issues of colonial and wartime history.

The normalization of relations is largely the consequence of the change in administrations in Seoul, though even during the previous progressive administration there was a growing conviction that the severe downturn in relations needed to be reversed.

Yoon has very clearly repudiated the use of anti-Japanese tropes in Korean domestic politics and taken steps to unilaterally resolve the forced labor issue, the Fukushima nuclear wastewater discharge controversy, the export control problem and lingering barriers to security cooperation such as the fire control incident of 2018.

Still, Yoon’s personal popularity remains relatively low, though support for his administration has stabilized somewhat. That said, the polarization of Korean politics remains unchanged. The opposition Democratic Party is gearing up for what promises to be a highly contested and crucial election next spring for the National Assembly, where the Democrats still hold a majority.

The key issues pushed by the progressives are aimed squarely at Yoon’s foreign and security policy agenda, as well as at issues of domestic economic reform. These include the Fukushima discharge, the confrontation with trade unions over labor policy reforms, the unilateral and unreciprocated settlement of the forced labor compensation suits, and the charge that Yoon is undermining Korean independence by subordinating policy to the US and Japan.

The Korean left argues that Yoon’s tilt against China is dictated by the US and Japan and endangers the Korean economy, which is suffering from slowing growth driven in part by a steep decline in exports of Korean semiconductors, batteries and other technology goods to China.

Even among conservatives in Korea, there is a growing concern that while Korea has embraced a confrontation with China, it may find itself alone as the US pursues the resumption of engagement with Beijing.

If the economy continues to suffer, with Korean businesses seeming to be put at risk due to the anti-China policy, this may shape the coming election as a potential turning point for Yoon’s foreign and security policy shift.

The politics of normalization in Japan are not nearly as perilous as those of Korea. Prime Minister Kishida’s efforts to improve the optics of relations – the visit of Yoon to Japan, the reciprocal visit to Korea, and the joint appearance at the memorial for Korean victims of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima – are generally viewed positively in Japan.

Within elite policy circles in Japan, based on this writer’s conversations in Tokyo this year, there is recognition that President Yoon has taken serious and even politically risky steps to improve relations and that it is the Japanese interest to support those efforts.

Skepticism about Korean commitment to normal relations and the easing of anti-Japanese feelings in Korea has eased considerably.

The history problem will not go away

However, Kishida has been unwilling – and perhaps politically unable – to offer significant concessions on the historical justice issues, most specifically to encourage Japanese corporations to offer contributions to the fund used by Korea to compensate forced labor victims and their descendants.

Nor was Kishida willing to directly address the issues of Japan’s wartime conduct or its colonial rule. All of that was widely noted by Koreans and influenced the view held by Koreans that Yoon made all the concessions on this issue and the Japanese did essentially nothing.

South Korean protesters hold a sign during an anti-Japanese demonstration supporting comfort women who served as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II, near the Japanese embassy in Seoul on July 24, 2019. Photo: Asia Times Files / AFP / Jung Yeon-je

Kishida remains effectively constrained by the strength of the more conservative and historically revisionist elements of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), mainly organized by the former Abe faction but not confined to its members alone.

He may not feel able to take the steps needed on history issues until he holds another general election under his leadership and, if successful, ends the constant discussion of his succession within the LDP. Kishida, however, also shows no personal interest or conviction to confront the history issues more directly.

There is a belief in Tokyo, echoed in Washington, and to some degree in the presidential administration in Seoul, that the history issues have been effectively contained and even resolved. That will probably be reflected in the outcome of the Camp David summit. But that is an illusion, and a dangerous one.

Daniel Sneider is a lecturer on international policy and East Asian studies at Stanford University and a non-resident distinguished fellow at the Korea Economic Institute. Follow him on Twitter at @DCSneider

This article was originally published by The Oriental Economist. It is republished with permission.

asiatimes.com · by Daniel Sneider · August 15, 2023

4. Can Japan and South Korea Unite to Face the Chinese Threat?

Seems like Mr. Baker is expecting some kind of high level security pact along the lines of AUKUS. What will be the new name? JAROKUS? (Japan ROK US)

Excerpts:

I continue to believe that U.S. support for Ukraine against Russia isn’t a distraction from our effort to deter China, as some critics argue, but, rather, by inflicting massive military damage on Beijing’s principal ally, a spur for that effort. Yet it is also true that Beijing is watching as U.S. military capacity is depleted by the assistance to Kyiv.

Building a network of alliances as a makeweight to China is a good move—this week’s trilateral meeting follows the creation of the Aukus defense pact among the U.S., Australia and the U.K. in 2021.

The worry is that we may be entering that dangerous moment history has given us before—one in which, in scrambling to build the proper security conditions to deter a threat, a major power doesn’t deter, but instead encourages its adversary to accelerate its own plans for domination. We are racing against time.

Can Japan and South Korea Unite to Face the Chinese Threat?

They’re America’s most important allies in Asia, and bad blood between them goes back centuries.

Gerard Baker

Aug. 14, 2023 1:36 pm ET

https://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-south-korea-unite-chinese-threat-camp-david-emanuel-comfort-women-indo-pacific-nuclear-beijing-1770e116?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

Listen

(6 min)

Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul City, South Korea, June 19, 2017 PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Seoul

South Korea’s capital may lie within unnervingly close range of Kim Jong-un’s vast missile armory, but everywhere you go in the South Korean capital you are reminded who the real enemy of this strategically critical country has long been.

In central Gwanghwamun Square, the crossroads of the nation, a 50-foot high statue of the 16th-century Adm. Yi Sun-Sin looks defiantly down from his massive plinth on selfie-taking Seoulites and curious tourists. Yi led Korean forces to the greatest military victory in their history—routing the invading Japanese navy in 1597-98—and became a revered figure in the national narrative.

Across the square stands the lovingly rebuilt main gate of the palace of Gyeongbokgung, home to the rulers of Korea’s 500-year Joseon dynasty. It was restored less than 20 years ago on the spot where the hated Japanese General Government Building, headquarters for the brutal occupation that ran Korea 1907 to 1945, sat.

Every Wednesday outside the Japanese Embassy, the last remaining “comfort women,” the grotesque euphemism imperial Japan used to describe Koreans forced into sexual slavery for the gratification of its occupying troops, protest Tokyo’s continuing failure to do enough to atone for its crimes.

So when South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-Yeol meets Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with President Biden at Camp David on Friday, it will mark as significant a development in the shifting geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific as any in a long while.

Japan’s historical savagery, and its refusal to accept full accountability for it, continues to run like a trickle of bad blood through Asian diplomacy. The two nations restored diplomatic relations in the 1960s but have had frequent flare-ups over history and territorial issues, bringing them repeatedly to the brink of outright enmity.

For the U.S., this has long been a nightmare. Japan and South Korea are its two most important allies in Asia, hosting its two largest regional contingents of military forces. The trilateral meeting this week—the first specifically organized summit among the three nations—is not only an important step forward for Washington. It will have big and unpredictable implications for our efforts to contain and confront China.

The collaboration is ostensibly mainly about North Korea. Both Japan and South Korea live at risk of nuclear annihilation by the volatile despot in Pyongyang, and a formal platform of security cooperation with the U.S. is vital for their defense and Mr. Kim’s deterrence.

But there’s no disguising the larger strategic opportunity the prospective alliance represents—a critical new bulwark in America’s increasingly urgent effort to deter our potentially existential strategic challenger—communist China.

Beijing certainly sees it that way. In an editorial last week, Global Times, a Communist Party mouthpiece, said the arrangement placed the security of East Asia at a historic “crossroads” that was likely to lead to a “geopolitical tragedy.”

Rahm Emanuel, Mr Biden’s ambassador in Tokyo, who played a central role in bringing the summit about, doesn’t deny that it is mainly about China. Beijing has been trying hard to wean the two countries away from the U.S. embrace. Its response to this week’s historic meeting is, he said in an interview last week, a form of “summit envy.”

“Are we standing here today putting pieces on the chess board and moving them forward?” he said. “Yes, we are.” Trilateral cooperation, he said, will become a “permanent part of the strategic landscape in Asia.”

Last week, on my first trip across the region in four years, I was struck by the transformed urgency about the China challenge. Asian nations are even more economically integrated with China than the U.S. is and have no intention of jeopardizing that, but they are beginning to share the same agitated assessment Washington has of the threat Beijing poses to regional and global stability. U.S. political leaders and military strategists I spoke to over the summer have clearly shifted from seeing China as a challenge to be contained in the medium term to a potentially imminent threat—with Taiwan as the stage.

Deteriorating economic conditions in China—growth grinding to a halt, another big real estate company on the brink, more than one-fifth of young Chinese adults jobless—feed a gnawing sense that Xi Jinping may need the crutch of historical revanchism to replace the springboard of rising prosperity as the basis of legitimacy of the party’s rule.

I continue to believe that U.S. support for Ukraine against Russia isn’t a distraction from our effort to deter China, as some critics argue, but, rather, by inflicting massive military damage on Beijing’s principal ally, a spur for that effort. Yet it is also true that Beijing is watching as U.S. military capacity is depleted by the assistance to Kyiv.

Building a network of alliances as a makeweight to China is a good move—this week’s trilateral meeting follows the creation of the Aukus defense pact among the U.S., Australia and the U.K. in 2021.

The worry is that we may be entering that dangerous moment history has given us before—one in which, in scrambling to build the proper security conditions to deter a threat, a major power doesn’t deter, but instead encourages its adversary to accelerate its own plans for domination. We are racing against time.

(LEAD) Yoon says Japan is partner sharing universal values, pursuing common interests | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Haye-ah · August 15, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with more remarks by Yoon, background; ADDS photo)

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that South Korea and Japan are now partners sharing universal values and pursuing common interests, and called for strengthening trilateral security cooperation with Japan and the United States to counter threats from North Korea.

Yoon made the remarks in a Liberation Day address commemorating the end of Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, stressing the importance of the neighboring country's role in deterring aggression by the North.

The address was yet another testament to Yoon's commitment to improve relations with Tokyo that had frayed badly under the previous administration over wartime forced labor and other thorny issues stemming from colonial rule.

"Korea and Japan are now partners who share universal values and pursue common interests," Yoon said during a Liberation Day ceremony held at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. "As partners that cooperate on security and the economy, Korea and Japan will be able to jointly contribute to peace and prosperity across the globe while collaborating and exchanging in a future-oriented manner."

Yoon also cited Japan's role in deterring a North Korean invasion of the South by providing seven rear bases to the United Nations Command that oversees the Armistice Agreement that ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Yoon also called for stronger trilateral security cooperation with Tokyo and Washington.

"The significance of ROK-U.S.-Japan trilateral security cooperation is increasingly growing on the Korean Peninsula and in the region," he said, using the acronym for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.

"In order to fundamentally block North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, the Republic of Korea, the United States and Japan must closely cooperate on reconnaissance assets and share North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles data in real time," he said.

President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers an address during a Liberation Day ceremony at Ewha Womans University in Seoul on Aug. 15, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

South Korea-Japan relations have improved significantly since the Yoon administration decided in March to compensate Korean victims of Japanese wartime forced labor on its own without asking for contributions from the Japanese businesses involved.

Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have held multiple summits, including during bilateral visits to each other's countries in March and May, respectively.

On Friday, the two leaders are scheduled to hold a trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden at the U.S. presidential retreat Camp David, near Washington, the first time the three countries' leaders will meet for a standalone summit not on the sidelines of a multilateral event.

Yoon said the summit will "set a new milestone in trilateral cooperation contributing to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific region."

President Yoon Suk Yeol (2nd from L) and first lady Kim Keon Hee (3rd from L) wave the South Korean national flag during a Liberation Day ceremony at Ewha Womans University in Seoul on Aug. 15, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

He also reaffirmed his commitment to the Audacious Initiative he proposed last year to significantly rebuild North Korea's economy if Pyongyang takes steps toward substantial denuclearization.

"While steadfastly implementing the Audacious Initiative to build peace by overwhelming force, the government will also work together with the international community to make the North Korean regime stop advancing its nuclear and missile programs and embark on a path to dialogue and cooperation, which will lead to better livelihoods of its people," he said.

Yoon called attention to what he called "anti-state forces" that he said blindly follow communist totalitarianism, distort public opinion and disrupt society through manipulative propaganda.

"The forces of communist totalitarianism have always disguised themselves as democracy activists, human rights advocates or progressive activists while engaging in despicable and unethical tactics and false propaganda," he said. "We must never succumb to the forces of communist totalitarianism. We must not be deceived by those who follow and serve them."

Yoon also reiterated his vision of making South Korea a "global pivotal state" that fulfills its

roles and responsibilities in the international community.

hague@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Haye-ah · August 15, 2023

6. #Korea: #Japan: To Camp David for an alliance to answer #PRC predation.

My interview with John Batchelor and Gordon Chang last evening. I regret I did not think of "JAROKUS" (Japan- Korea - US) until this morning. I should have used it yesterday to describe a Northeast Security Pact to go along with my recommendation of a "Camp David Consensus" - an agreement to pursue a free and unified Korea as the path to denuclearization and the end of human rights abuses and crimes against humanity in the north.

https://audioboom.com/posts/8349914-korea-japan-to-camp-david-for-an-alliance-to-answer-prc-predation-david-maxwell-senior-fe?utm

#Korea: #Japan: To Camp David for an alliance to answer #PRC predation. David Maxwell, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and senior fellow at the Global Peace Foundation, on his trip to Seoul @GordonGChang, Gatestone, Newsweek, T

Photo: 1914 China. No known restrictions on publication.

@Batchelorshow

#Korea: #Japan: To Camp David for an alliance to answer #PRC predation.

David Maxwell, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and senior fellow at the Global Peace Foundation, on his trip to Seoul @GordonGChang, Gatestone, Newsweek, The Hill:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/japan/2023/08/11/us-japan-south-korea-three-way-summits-annual-camp-david

7. Space on agenda for Biden's trilateral summit with S. Korea, Japan

There are a lot of items on the agenda. I think the three leaders will have to work the entire weekend. (But actually I am sure the action officers have compiled all the hard work before the summit).

Space on agenda for Biden's trilateral summit with S. Korea, Japan - Breaking Defense

The Defense Department in particular has been keen to build up military space ties with its allies and partners in Asia in the face of China's rapid buildup of its own space capabilities, including the development of technologies that could hold US and allied space assets at risk in a regional conflict.

breakingdefense.com · by Theresa Hitchens · August 14, 2023

Japan, the United States and South Korea have a long, and sometimes troubled, history. (Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Military, civil and commercial cooperation in space will be among the myriad agenda items during the first trilateral summit among US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Aug. 18 at Camp David, according to government sources.

Driving joint operations between the two Pacific nations — each a key regional ally to the US — has been a goal for many administrations over the last 40 years. But historical enmities, especially around Japan’s actions on the Korean peninsula during World War II, have often stymied the efforts to make Tokyo and Seoul close military partners in their own right.

Which doesn’t mean the Biden administration isn’t game to try. In a July 30 announcement, the White House said “The three leaders will discuss expanding trilateral cooperation across the Indo-Pacific and beyond – including to address the continued threat posed by the DPRK and to strengthen ties with ASEAN and the Pacific Islands. The summit will advance a shared trilateral vision for addressing global and regional security challenges, promoting a rules-based international order, and bolstering economic prosperity.”

The Biden administration has been “absolutely working across the board” with Japan and South Korea, as well as other allies and partners in the region, to strengthen ties, one senior administration official said.

Bilaterally, the Biden administration has been pushing cooperation in space with the two nations.

Washington and Seoul signed a Joint Statement of Intent for Cooperation on Space Exploration and Science on April 25, during a visit by Yoon to NASA hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris. A day later, Biden and Yoon “committed to further strengthening the U.S.-ROK Alliance across all sectors and through multiple channels of space cooperation, in a joint statement following their April 26 meeting to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the US-Republic of Korea alliance.

The two leaders further “welcomed deepening space security cooperation, including the ROK’s commitment not to conduct destructive, direct-ascent anti-satellite missile testing. Both sides will work towards advancing bilateral space situational awareness cooperation in response to growing space risks and threats, and ensuring a safe, secure, and sustainable space environment through further development of norms of responsible behaviors.”

Likewise, space cooperation was a touchstone of the Jan. 11 US-Japan Security Consultative Committee meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Austin, Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi, and Minister of Defense Yasukazu Hamada.

“[T]he Ministers renewed their commitment to deepening cooperation on space capabilities to strengthen mission assurance, interoperability, and operational cooperation, including through enhanced collaboration in space domain awareness after the operationalization of Japan’s Space Situational Awareness system scheduled in 2023,” the two sides said in a joint statement. “The Ministers consider that attacks to, from, or within space present a clear challenge to the security of the Alliance, and affirmed such attacks, in certain circumstances, could lead to the invocation of Article V of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.”

Two days later, on Jan. 13, Washington and Tokyo signed the bilateral Framework Agreement for Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, for Peaceful Purposes; which was followed by a interagency Comprehensive Dialogue on Space in March 23-24.

Tokyo, for its part, adopted a first-ever “Space Security Initiative” [PDF] that not only pledges increased cooperation, in particular with regard to space domain awareness, with the United States, but also pledges to beef up Japan’s own national security space capabilities and expands the remit of the Japanese Self Defense Force to disrupt communications links and strike satellite ground systems being used by an adversary in a conflict.

The Defense Department in particular has been keen to build up military space ties with its allies and partners in Asia in the face of China’s rapid buildup of its own space capabilities, including the development of technologies that could hold US and allied space assets at risk in a regional conflict. At the top of the list for efforts is expanding and deepening space domain awareness as well as missile warning/defense.

And there does seem to be a willingness for Japan and South Korea to work together in this area. For example, the three countries agreed to link together in real-time their ballistic missile warning radar in the region to better keep tabs on North Korea during the June 2-4 Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, cementing commitments made at the November 2022 Phnom Penh Summit. The accord includes the establishment of working groups to sort through the technical issues involved.

“The United States, Japan, and the ROK are strengthening our interoperability and exploring ways to better share information about missile threats from North Korea,” said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in his opening remarks June 2.

The ballistic missile data sharing accord builds on the 2014 U.S.-Japan-ROK Trilateral Information Sharing Arrangement [PDF] that opened the way for the three nations to share classified information on nuclear threats from North Korea.

While the accord did not mention it, such radar also can be used for tracking satellites and dangerous space debris — with Inside Defense on July 25 reporting that the US Missile Defense Agency this month will debut an upgrade of the Command and Control, Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) system to directly link certain land- and sea-based radars to the Space Force’s Space Surveillance Network.

More recently, Space Force officials held two separate meetings with their Japanese and South Korean colleagues to discuss how to better integrate space capabilities.

Of the two, Japan has the more robust space program, including a bevy of dual-use remote sensing satellites, although until recently the country’s space budget was primarily dedicated to civil and commercial activities. Japan already has one key military cooperation program with the US, hosting space monitoring payloads on its Quazi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) satellites. The QZSS constellation is designed to augment GPS in the region, with three birds on orbit and three more planned, including the two carrying the US payloads although no launch date has yet been set.

South Korea, meanwhile, has been seeking to bolster its space efforts across the board, including developing its own launchers. Most recently, Seoul in May successfully launched seven small satellites, including a synthetic aperture radar satellite for imaging at night and through clouds, on its KSLV-2 rocket. The National Assembly in March approved nearly 20 percent boost in annual space spending to a total of 874.2 billion won ($674 million), according to a report in Space News. Of that sum, 95.4 billion won ($73.1 million) was slated for space defense, as a part of Yoon’s long-term military space strategy that is expected to cost some 1.42 trillion won ($1.09 billion) through 2030 — with an emphasis on remote sensing to keep eyes on regional military activities.

Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs, and requirements, and Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, commander of US Space Forces Indo-Pacific, led the “first-ever Space Engagement Talks” with Japanese counterparts on July 13 at YoKota Air Base, Japan — a new series of formal dialogues “aiming to enhance combined space operations and establish a bilateral roadmap for future collaboration,” according to a service press release.

“The US-Japan Space Engagement Talks represent a further expansion of our strong alliance into the space domain,” Mastalir said. “Through these talks and Space Working Groups to follow, we can build a roadmap for cooperation to ensure safety and security in space for our nations and all responsible actors.”

On July 4, Space Force Col. Raj Agrawal, commander, Space Delta 2-Space Domain Awareness and Space Battle Management, met with officials from US Space Forces Korea and the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) at ROKAF’s third annual Open Space Forum.

“During the Open Space Forum, Agrawal discussed the importance of integrated civil-military SDA, the value of partnership between responsible nations, current threats to internationally established norms in the space domain, and space as a fundamental aspect of national security,” noted a Space Force press release.

breakingdefense.com · by Theresa Hitchens · August 14, 2023

8. America’s Window of Opportunity in Asia

Time for JAROKUS.

Excerpts:

The Biden administration’s stewardship of this trilateral relationship is reflective of its broader approach to order building in the Indo-Pacific. Through a network of alliances and institutions, the Biden administration believes it can extend its influence and legitimacy and ultimately sustain a rules-based order despite geostrategic competition with China. Campbell and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, previewed this approach in Foreign Affairs in 2019 when they wrote, “The United States will ultimately need to embed its China strategy in a dense network of relationships and institutions in Asia and the rest of the world.”

At the same time, strengthened trilateral cooperation carries the risk of further escalating tensions with North Korea, which will unlikely be in any mood to give up its nuclear weapons or return to talks. This type of coalition building can also provoke China and Russia, which have criticized recent U.S. efforts to strengthen alliances in Europe and Asia. The two countries conducted joint military exercises in the East China Sea in December and the Sea of Japan in July. Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu stated in December that the Russian deployment of a coastal defense missile system in Paramushir, part of Russia’s Kuril Islands, was partly in response to U.S. efforts to contain Russia and China. Shoigu also visited Pyongyang in late July, allegedly requesting more munitions for the war in Ukraine. By deepening trilateral ties and expanding its scope beyond North Korea to the wider Indo-Pacific, the United States may inadvertently push Beijing, Moscow, and Pyongyang closer, as well.

For this reason, it is important for the United States to elucidate the goals of collaboration and to clearly articulate what the partnership is not. Security cooperation and contingency planning are not geared to produce collective defense commitments, as is the case with NATO. This message will matter not only to the reception that closer trilateral alignment receives in the region but also to how voters in Japan and South Korea feel about the scope and pace of deepening cooperation.

America’s Window of Opportunity in Asia

How Biden Can Boost Cooperation With Japan and South Korea

By Andrew Yeo, Mireya Solís, and Hanna Foreman

August 15, 2023

Foreign Affairs · by Japan’s Quiet Leadership: Reshaping the Indo-Pacific · August 15, 2023

Later this week, U.S. President Joe Biden will host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at Camp David. The summit comes at a now-or-never moment in relations among the three countries. Missile threats from North Korea and deep concerns about Chinese military capabilities and intentions have motivated the three allies to band together in recent months. But those mutual concerns have existed for decades, and domestic politics—particularly in Seoul and Tokyo—have often prevented the three countries from successfully coordinating their strategies. Right now, however, there is an internationalist American president, a bold South Korean leader with foreign policy ambitions beyond the Korean Peninsula, and a Japanese prime minister bent on cementing Japan's proactive security policy. This combination presents a unique opportunity for trilateral cooperation, and Biden is seeking to take advantage of it.

Biden’s desire to advance the trilateral relationship reflects his broader approach to geostrategic competition: building U.S. power by strengthening institutions and alliances. The U.S.-Japanese-South Korean relationship has muscle, as it is built around two technologically advanced U.S. allies that possess formidable defense capabilities and together host around 100 permanent U.S. military bases and approximately 80,000 U.S. troops. But owing to a history of colonial occupation and antagonism, Japan and South Korea make for uneasy partners, and getting them to come to terms will not be easy. What is more, the window of opportunity may be closing, so Biden needs to move quickly.

ORIGIN STORY

Trilateral cooperation among Japan, South Korea, and the United States has moved in fits and starts over the last three decades, accelerating during heightened periods of North Korean threats and often stumbling whenever relations between South Korea and Japan started to deteriorate.

Nevertheless, the three-way partnership has come a long way. Efforts to coordinate began in the mid-1990s in response to North Korea’s emerging nuclear program. In 1998, North Korea launched its first multistage ballistic missile over Japan. Although similar provocations from North Korea may seem routine today, back then, they rattled the entire region. That same year, Japan and South Korea took an important step toward healing their shared painful history. South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi held a historic meeting in Tokyo, where Obuchi acknowledged Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945 and offered an official apology. This step eased tensions and helped Washington set the stage to advance trilateral relations, eventually institutionalizing the ad hoc meetings under the Trilateral Coordination Oversight Group in 1999.

In 2002, North Korea admitted that it had a covert nuclear weapons program. The so-called six-party talks on North Korean denuclearization, which included China and Russia, began in 2003 and ultimately subsumed Washington’s attempt to strengthen trilateral ties. Meanwhile, historical animosities and domestic politics continued to hobble the Japanese-South Korean leg of the trilateral. For example, in 2012, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made a controversial visit to a set of islands—known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan—that both South Korea and Japan claim as their own, raising tensions between the two countries. In 2013, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited a shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, including convicted war criminals, angering South Korea and China.

South Korea exports more than 40 percent of its semiconductors to China.

Despite Seoul-Tokyo tensions, North Korean nuclear tests and U.S. diplomatic prodding helped sustain relations through this period. Following North Korea’s third nuclear test in 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama convened a summit with Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye to present unity in the face of Pyongyang’s aggressive posture. Washington also encouraged Seoul and Tokyo to address the issue of “comfort women,” a euphemistic name for the thousands of Korean women that Japan forced to work as sex slaves during World War II. Obama’s efforts resulted in Park and Abe signing an agreement in 2015 declaring that both countries wanted to see the issue “finally and irreversibly resolved.”

Unfortunately, a shift in domestic political winds in South Korea following the 2017 impeachment of Park reversed many of these gains. Park’s progressive successor, Moon Jae-in, was critical of the deal with Japan on comfort women and scrapped the foundation that the two governments set up with Japanese funding to provide restitution to the victims and their families. In 2018, South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered several Japanese companies to compensate unpaid South Korean World War II laborers. This prompted a series of new punitive measures from each side, driving relations to a nadir in 2019.

In 2021, the resumption of North Korean provocations, including a long-range cruise missile test, prompted the Biden administration to once again push forward trilateral meetings. Although there was no leaders meeting, officials from the three countries met ten times in 2021. This did not mean tensions disappeared. At a deputy-level meeting hosted by the United States in November of that year, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Mori Takeo objected to joining a joint press conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun because of disputes over the Dokdo/Takeshima Islands. This left U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman awkwardly standing alone at the press conference. “There are some bilateral differences between Japan and the Republic of Korea that are continuing to be resolved,” she noted.

NOW OR NEVER

Today, however, the stars have aligned at the regional and domestic levels and the Biden administration is therefore looking to solidify trilateral cooperation while there is still momentum.

Yoon’s decision to prioritize South Korean-Japanese ties despite weak domestic support, matched by Kishida’s pragmatic approach to Korean affairs, has helped dramatically repair the Tokyo-Seoul leg of the relationship. Meanwhile, Biden’s liberal internationalist outlook and his desire to bolster alliances and institutions make him a true champion for trilateral engagement. Several former Obama administration officials now serving under Biden, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Kurt Campbell, the National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, also bring ample experience planning and executing high-level trilateral meetings. Campbell, arguably the biggest driving force behind reinvigorating the three-way relationship, carries decades of experience and deep networks in Japan and South Korea.

But despite the rapid progress made over the past year, future success is not assured. Yoon’s engagement with Japan, although hailed in Washington, has been met with resistance in Seoul. The Democratic Party of Korea, which currently controls the National Assembly and is the main rival of Yoon’s People Power Party, lambasted a deal Yoon struck with Japan on the World War II forced labor issue as the “most humiliating moment” in South Korea’s diplomatic history. And although the next South Korean presidential election is still four years away, the loss of seats in parliamentary elections next year or a change in government following Yoon could once again stall trilateral cooperation. Similarly, Kishida’s weak approval ratings and speculation about the timing of a snap election may also place limits on the potential for making progress should “Korea fatigue” once again take over in Japan.

In the United States, both Democratic and Republican administrations have generally supported trilateral relations. U.S. President Donald Trump’s dismissal of alliances, and his administration’s relatively hands-off approach to worsening relations between Japan and South Korea, however, do not inspire confidence that a Republican president will support trilateral cooperation to the same extent as Biden. In the near term, Biden will be bogged down next year with his reelection campaign and may not have the bandwidth to host another trilateral summit before his term ends. It is therefore imperative for all three leaders to make the most of this moment before the political sands shift again.

ON THE AGENDA

The visit to Camp David is especially significant because it will be the first standalone meeting of the three leaders dedicated to trilateral cooperation. Always on the agenda for Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington are new ways to boost deterrence against North Korea. Earlier this year, the three sides agreed to share real-time information on North Korean missile tests. Further details on the exact processes for sharing that information will likely be discussed this week.

The three leaders may also address other potential gaps or misunderstandings related to nuclear contingency planning, including the recently launched bilateral U.S.-South Korean Nuclear Consultative Group, which does not involve Japan. Conversely, South Korea and the United States will want to know more about Japan’s future counterstrike capabilities announced in its 2022 National Security Strategy.

The three sides will also look to build on last November’s Phnom Penh Statement. Economic security cooperation, including supply chain resiliency, remains a high priority for all three countries. South Korea and Japan find themselves in a similar position as they navigate the uncertainty of U.S.-Chinese competition. Despite the recent U.S. endorsement of a de-risking approach to economic relations with China, doubts persist about the will and ability of the Biden administration to keep the focus of its defensive economic measures narrow and well coordinated with allies. These doubts will only grow as the 2024 U.S. election nears and the temptation to appear tough on China grows. Japan and South Korea want to see the United States keep its promises: maintaining a “small yard, high fence,” friend shoring when it comes to supply chains, and consulting with allies.

Differences on China are inevitable. For example, Seoul has navigated its relationship with Beijing more cautiously than either Washington or Tokyo, given the geographic proximity and relatively larger economic stakes in its relations with China. South Korea exports more than 40 percent of its semiconductors to China. Korean firms such as Samsung have large production facilities in China, which recently have been in the crosshairs of the U.S.-Chinese competition. They received temporary waivers to U.S. restrictions on the supply of chip-making equipment, without which the manufacturing facilities would be shut down. Japan’s and South Korea’s initial responses to U.S. export controls levied against China last October have also differed. Japan is more willing than South Korea to tighten its export controls to align with U.S. restrictions.

Finally, Kishida, Yoon, and especially Biden will look for ways to institutionalize cooperation. One possibility is holding a leaders summit annually, or at least formalizing trilateral meetings for national security advisers, which have taken place annually the past three years but on an ad hoc basis. Trilateral cooperation might also be routinized at the deputy or working levels on specific issues such as economic security, energy cooperation, and climate. Institutionalization would help preserve trilateral cooperation even in the face of domestic political change or deterioration in Japanese-South Korean relations.

EYES ON THE PRIZE

The Biden administration’s stewardship of this trilateral relationship is reflective of its broader approach to order building in the Indo-Pacific. Through a network of alliances and institutions, the Biden administration believes it can extend its influence and legitimacy and ultimately sustain a rules-based order despite geostrategic competition with China. Campbell and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, previewed this approach in Foreign Affairs in 2019 when they wrote, “The United States will ultimately need to embed its China strategy in a dense network of relationships and institutions in Asia and the rest of the world.”

At the same time, strengthened trilateral cooperation carries the risk of further escalating tensions with North Korea, which will unlikely be in any mood to give up its nuclear weapons or return to talks. This type of coalition building can also provoke China and Russia, which have criticized recent U.S. efforts to strengthen alliances in Europe and Asia. The two countries conducted joint military exercises in the East China Sea in December and the Sea of Japan in July. Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu stated in December that the Russian deployment of a coastal defense missile system in Paramushir, part of Russia’s Kuril Islands, was partly in response to U.S. efforts to contain Russia and China. Shoigu also visited Pyongyang in late July, allegedly requesting more munitions for the war in Ukraine. By deepening trilateral ties and expanding its scope beyond North Korea to the wider Indo-Pacific, the United States may inadvertently push Beijing, Moscow, and Pyongyang closer, as well.

For this reason, it is important for the United States to elucidate the goals of collaboration and to clearly articulate what the partnership is not. Security cooperation and contingency planning are not geared to produce collective defense commitments, as is the case with NATO. This message will matter not only to the reception that closer trilateral alignment receives in the region but also to how voters in Japan and South Korea feel about the scope and pace of deepening cooperation.

ANDREW YEO is Senior Fellow and the SK-Korea Foundation Chair at the Brookings Institution and Professor of Politics at The Catholic University of America.
MIREYA SOLÍS is Director of the Center for East Asia Policy Studies and Senior Fellow and Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies at the Brookings Institution. She is the author of the forthcoming book Japan’s Quiet Leadership: Reshaping the Indo-Pacific.
HANNA FOREMAN is a Research Assistant at the Brookings Institution’s Center for East Asia Policy Studies.

Foreign Affairs · by Japan’s Quiet Leadership: Reshaping the Indo-Pacific · August 15, 2023

9. Pyongyang opposes UNSC meeting on N. Korea's human rights

Of course it does. But this shows how much such a meeting undermines Kim Jong Un's legitimacy.

Pyongyang opposes UNSC meeting on N. Korea's human rights | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · August 15, 2023

SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Yonhap) -- Pyongyang on Tuesday opposed the United States' request for a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting to address human rights abuses in North Korea, calling the move "a violent infringement upon its dignity and sovereignty."

The U.S., which holds the 15-nation UNSC's rotating presidency this month, requested a formal meeting on human rights abuses in North Korea along with Japan and Albania. If held on Thursday, it will be the first such meeting since December 2017.

"The U.S.' despicable fuss over human rights issue is a violent infringement upon our dignity and sovereignty and a serious challenge. We firmly condemn and reject the move," Kim Son-gyong, Pyongyang's vice foreign minister for international organizations, said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim said Washington's call for the UNSC meeting reveals its hostility against Pyongyang, vowing to "firmly respond to any hostile acts by U.S. and protect the national sovereignty and interests of North Korean people."

It is not yet clear whether China and Russia, which have taken sides with North Korea in recent UNSC meetings over its missile tests, could demand a procedural vote to decide on the matter.

A procedural vote requires nine affirmative votes among 15 members to proceed, and a permanent member's negative vote does not invalidate the decision.

On Monday, China's U.N. mission expressed its opposition to the planned meeting on North Korean rights issues, saying it will only intensify confrontation and antagonism.

North Korea leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday exchanged letters pledging to further develop their bilateral relations on the occasion of Liberation Day, which marks Korea's liberation from the Japanese 1910-45 colonial rule, according to the KCNA.

ejkim@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · August 15, 2023

10. Tensions rise on Korean Peninsula as US announces major war games and Kim Jong Un orders increase in munitions production

Before everyone specaulates on the threats we should ask what indicators are we observing of north Korean preparation for war? Are we observing any mobilization or reposition of forces?

Sure the regime will likely conduct some kind of provocation such as a missile test but that is not the same as a n attack on the South.

Perhaps we should not be whipping up tensions. It actually supports Kim's political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies when we do.

Tensions rise on Korean Peninsula as US announces major war games and Kim Jong Un orders increase in munitions production

by Jamie McIntyre, Senior Writer August 14, 2023 06:57 AM

Washington Examiner · August 14, 2023

‘WAR GAMES’ ARE BACK: U.S. Forces Korea announced today that the annual major military U.S.-South Korea joint exercise “Ulchi Freedom Shield” will begin a week from today and run through the end of the month.

The annual military drills, named for a famous Korean general, were scaled back during the Trump administration in an effort to appease North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has consistently denounced the annual exercises as “war games” that are a “rehearsal for an invasion of the North.” The U.S. command insists the exercises, which will include thousands of South Korean and American troops as well as forces from 10 other nations, are purely defensive in nature.

“The annual exercise is designed to strengthen the combined defense posture and alliance response capabilities based on scenarios that reflect diverse threats within the security environment,” U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement. “[South Korean] and U.S. units will conduct a number of complementary large-scale, combined training events to strengthen interoperability. The training will increase combat readiness, as well as strengthen the security and stability on the Korean peninsula and across Northeast Asia.”

KIM ORDERS RAMP UP: The announcement of the 11 days of military drills comes as Kim toured a factory producing tactical missiles and ordered a speed-up of production to prepare his country for war.

“He set forth an important goal to drastically boost the existing missile production capacity,” according to an account in the state-run Korean Central News Agency. “The qualitative level of war preparations depends on the development of the munitions industry,” Kim said, “appealing the factory to bring about a surge in production for war preparations.”

Kim reportedly focused on a shortage of mobile launch systems known as TELs, for “transporter erector launcher,” which allow missiles to be moved around to avoid detection.

“TEL production presents itself as the primary problem in view of the development of the national defense,” the KCNA report said. Kim reportedly “underlined the need to go all out” to produce “more modern and highly efficient TELs substantially conducive to the army's perfect war preparations.”

Kim has spent several days this month touring factories that make armored vehicles, artillery shells, and other munitions, in each case ordering a surge in production.

‘GIRDING FOR WAR’: The orders follow a meeting last week of the North Korean Central Military Commission, which was called “to discuss an important issue of making the army more thoroughly gird for a war given the grave political and military situation prevailing in the Korean peninsula,” according to another KCNA report.

“The present situation, in which the hostile forces are getting ever more undisguised in their reckless military confrontation with the DPRK, requires the latter's army to have more positive, proactive and overwhelming will and thoroughgoing and perfect military readiness for a war,” the report said.

At the meeting, Kim reportedly called for “securing more powerful strike means for carrying out the mission of war deterrence,” and for “actively conducting actual war drills.”

Since the beginning of last year, North Korea has conducted more than 100 missile tests, and the U.S. is bracing for more during this month’s U.S.-South Korean exercise.

11. US says no plan to expand Quad despite interest from South Korea

We won't need an expanded Quad if we have JAROKUS.

US says no plan to expand Quad despite interest from South Korea

US official Camille Dawson said she was ‘not aware of any country’ that had asked for or suggested full membership
Since taking office in May last year, President Yoon Suk-yeol’s government has prioritised trilateral security cooperation with the US and Japan

Kyodo

+ FOLLOWPublished: 9:25pm, 14 Aug, 2023

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3231064/us-says-no-plan-expand-quad-despite-interest-south-korea

A US State Department senior official on Monday said that the United States, Japan, Australia and India had no immediate plans to expand their Quad grouping, despite South Korea showing interest in the four-way framework.

“There is no plan in the near term to expand the official membership of the Quad,” Camille Dawson, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters in Tokyo.

The view was a “common understanding” among the four member countries, the visiting official added.

Her remarks came after a senior South Korean official in March expressed willingness to take part in the working group of the US-led bloc, widely seen as a counter to China’s growing military and economic influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Dawson said she was “not aware of any country” that had asked for or suggested full membership, while underscoring that the Quad aimed to promote collaboration with other nations in each field to address issues related to Beijing.

She also said the Quad would not be “a major topic of discussion” at the trilateral summit between the US, Japan and South Korea at Camp David near Washington this Friday.

Since taking office in May last year, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s government has prioritised trilateral security cooperation with the US and Japan in response to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

Last Friday, the naval forces of the US, Japan, Australia and India began their Malabar joint defence exercise in Sydney, marking the first time Australia has hosted the war games amid China’s growing assertiveness in the region.

The Quad nations will conduct joint training involving maritime and air defence drills through August 21 in Sydney Harbour and off Australia’s east coast, with some 2,000 personnel taking part, including around 170 Japanese.

At a press conference ahead of the exercises on Thursday, naval commanders from the four countries called for all parties operating in the region to do so transparently in support of the international, rules-based order.

Vice-admiral Akira Saito, commander-in-chief of the Maritime Self-Defence Force’s Self-Defence Fleet, told reporters that the ability to conduct the exercise in the vast offshore training area “significantly contributes to the improvement of our tactics and skills”.

Camille Dawson, the US State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Photo: Kyodo

American vice-admiral Karl Thomas, commander of the US Navy’s 7th Fleet, said at the press conference that the exercise was “not pointed towards any one country” and would focus on improving the ability of the four nations’ interoperability.

“The deterrence that our four nations provide as we operate together as a Quad is a foundation for all the other nations operating in this region,” Thomas said.

Guided missile destroyers from Australia, the US and Japan, as well as an Indian frigate, are participating in the exercise, alongside Australian F-35A stealth fighters and P-8A surveillance aircraft.

12. U.S. Army captain’s memoirs of Korean Liberation Army and anti-Japanese operation

See Robert Kim's book: Project Eagle: The American Christians of North Korea in World War II.

https://www.amazon.com/Project-Eagle-American-Christians-North/dp/1612348696/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

I wonder if Korea has digitized Captain Sargent's writings.

U.S. Army captain’s memoirs of Korean Liberation Army and anti-Japanese operation

donga.com

Posted August. 15, 2023 08:23,

Updated August. 15, 2023 08:23

U.S. Army captain’s memoirs of Korean Liberation Army and anti-Japanese operation. August. 15, 2023 08:23. always99@donga.com.

“The united corps with outstanding spirit gains power in the atmosphere of equality, respect, and cooperation that Lee Beom-seok (an officer of the Korean Liberation Army) and I created together to achieve our joint goals.”

In 1945 toward the end of the Japanese colonial era, Captain Clyde Bailey Sargent of the U.S., who was responsible for the Eagle Project, which was jointly conducted by the Korean Liberation Army and the Office of Strategic Services (currently the Central Intelligence Agency), said on the training atmosphere of the army. The objective of the joint operation was to send Korean soldiers who were trained as information agents for a war against Japan to infiltrate the Korean Peninsula. Captain Sargent said that young Korean people and the U.S. Army became one and cooperated in fighting against Japan.

The Independence Hall of Korea revealed the recently collected memoirs and documents left by Captain Sargent to The Dong-A Ilbo on Monday in commemoration of the 78th National Liberation Day. This is the first time that the records written by Captain Sargent are revealed to the public as only part of them were shared by his son, Robert Sargent who currently resides in Maine, for research. The memoirs are believed to be the only existing record of the Eagle Project, except for the official documents written by U.S. representatives who participated in the project. Kim Do-hyung, a former chief researcher of the Independence Hall of Korea, translated and analyzed the records.

Captain Sargent typed the memoirs about the Eagle Project on 10 letter-sized papers on March 7, 1980, the year before he passed away.

한국어

donga.com

13. Upgrading trilateral cooperation to new level

Excerpt:

Amid the new Cold War resulting from the U.S.-China contest and Ukraine war, Korea-Japan and Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation on security is critical. Yoon underscored the need for close cooperation to share their reconnaissance assets in real time to block Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile provocation.

Tuesday

August 15, 2023

dictionary + A - A

Published: 15 Aug. 2023, 20:07

Upgrading trilateral cooperation to new level

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2023-08-15/opinion/editorials/Upgrading-trilateral-cooperation-to-new-level/1847245

President Yoon Suk Yeol stressed the importance of security and economic cooperation between Korea and Japan in his speech to mark the 78th anniversary of the liberation. “Japan is a partner who shares the same universal values with us and pursues common interests,” he said. The president has ratcheted up the tone of cooperation with Japan compared to his past addresses. Thanks to the move, the two countries’ relations are back on track, as seen in the revived shuttle diplomacy.

Amid the new Cold War resulting from the U.S.-China contest and Ukraine war, Korea-Japan and Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation on security is critical. Yoon underscored the need for close cooperation to share their reconnaissance assets in real time to block Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile provocation.

The president also reminded the public of the importance of the seven rear bases of the United Nations Command in Japan, including the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, to provide reinforcements at times of crisis. He defined the reinforcements as the strongest deterrence against North Korea’s invasion.

Yoon’s speech came three days before the tripartite summit in Camp David on Friday. The president was convinced of a new milestone for the trilateral cooperation. After the Camp David summit, the tripartite summit and joint military exercise could be held regularly. The three countries are reportedly considering announcing a Camp David principle separate from a joint statement. In that case, the tripartite summit could develop into a new security consultative body beyond the QUAD.

But Yoon stopped short of mentioning the planned discharge of the wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. It could have been better if he had persuaded the public to move toward a better future now. Over the release of the contaminated water from Fukushima, Korea and Japan must cooperate until the last minute. Over history issues, Tokyo must show a more forward-looking attitude than before. Regrettably, however, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Cabinet members paid their respects or sent offerings Tuesday to the Yasukuni Shrine.

Mentioning the meaning of the 70th anniversary of the alliance, the president strongly criticized “anti-state forces” for “blindly following Communist totalitarianism, distorting public opinion and disturbing our society.” He denounced them for behaving as if they were democracy fighters and human rights activists. In reaction, the Democratic Party attacked the president for a “monologue akin to far-right YouTubers.” The president’s use of combative language on Liberation Day instead of spearheading national integration is undesirable.

14. Korean unification movement launched at National Assembly

PThere are people who question Korean support for unification. This important effort will work to counter that.

Again, not to beat a dead horse, but it would be great if the summit on friday could issue a "Camp David Consensus" to focus on a free and unified Korea.

Korean unification movement launched at National Assembly

The Korea Times · August 15, 2023

Representatives of local associations that jointly hosted the Rally for the Commitment and Action for Korea Unification on the 78th Anniversary of the National Liberation Day pose at the National Assembly in Seoul, Tuesday.

Courtesy of Korea Dream 10 Million campaign organizing committeeBy Ko Dong-hwan

A new campaign for Korean unification kicked off, Tuesday, aiming to secure 10 million supporters by 2025.

The Rally for the Commitment and Action for Korean Unification on the 78th Anniversary of the Liberation of Korea was jointly hosted by nine local associations, including Action for Korea United, Korean National Police Veterans Association and the Leaders' Alliance for Korea Unification. Rep. Lee Myoung-su of the ruling People Power Party and Rep. Lee Yong-sun of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) were among the co-hosts of the event.

The goal is to gather 10 million people in Korea and overseas by 2025 supporting inter-Korean unification. The "Korea Dream 10 Million" project will be completed by 2025, which marks the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, which ended in 1945.

Participants of the rally pledged to work together for Korean unification regardless of differences in their ideologies and political or religious beliefs. They agreed to be vocal about those suffering from the division and arouse international support for unification.

Seo In-teck, co-chairman of Action for Korea United, explains the Korea Dream 10 Million campaign's future agenda at the National Assembly in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of Korea Dream 10 Million campaign organizing committee

"It has been 78 years since the country was liberated and 70 years since the Korean War was halted after the two Koreas reached an armistice," Rep. Lee said during the rally. "But with Washington-Beijing tensions intensifying and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, the world seems to have regressed from the era of dialogue and cooperation back to that of division and turfs. To secure peace over the Korean Peninsula, unification that is supported domestically and internationally is key."

Participants of the rally also shared strategies that could help them attain their goal.

Co-chairman of Action for Korea United Seo In-teck and President of the Institute of Literature and Culture Lee Yeong-joon said the build-up process will employ K-pop concerts in seven cities on six different continents in 2025 and a nationwide walkathon from Haenam County in South Jeolla Province to Seoul for 33 days this September. In October, the organizers plan to hold a unification-themed festival for 100,000 visitors in Yeouido, Seoul.

Kim Ho-il, president of the Korean Senior Citizens' Association, said the country's unification process has been stymied by political differences for the past 70 years.

"It's time to shatter that frame and realize unification that transcends political, religious and cultural barriers," he added.

The Korea Times · August 15, 2023

15. N. Korea's Kim, Russia's Putin exchange letters, vow stronger ties

Two of the Axis of Authoritarians. It would be great to compare them with the letters between Kim and former President Trump. How much love is in these letters?

N. Korea's Kim, Russia's Putin exchange letters, vow stronger ties

The Korea Times · by 2023-08-15 08:18 | Foreign Affairs · August 15, 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their meeting at the Far East Federal University on Russky Island in Vladivostok, Russia, April 25, 2019. EPA-Yonhap

North Korea leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin exchanged letters on Tuesday pledging to develop their ties into what Kim called a "long-standing strategic relationship," Pyongyang's state media KCNA said.

The letters mark the 78th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, which is also celebrated as a national holiday in South Korea.

In his letter to Putin, Kim said the two countries' friendship was forged in World War II with victory over Japan and is now "fully demonstrating their invincibility and might in the struggle to smash the imperialists' arbitrary practices and hegemony," KCNA said.

"I am firmly convinced that the friendship and solidarity ... will be further developed into a long-standing strategic relationship in conformity with the demand of the new era," Kim was quoted as saying in the letter.

"The two countries will always emerge victorious, strongly supporting and cooperating with each other in the course of achieving their common goal and cause."

The United States has accused North Korea of providing weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, including artillery shells, shoulder-fired rockets and missiles. Pyongyang and Moscow have denied any arms transactions.

Last month, Russia's defence minister stood shoulder to shoulder with Kim as they reviewed his newest nuclear-capable missiles and attack drones at a military parade in Pyongyang.

Putin, in his message to Kim, also vowed to bolster bilateral ties.

"I am sure that we will strengthen the bilateral cooperation in all fields for the two peoples' well-being and the firm stability and security of the Korean peninsula and the whole of Northeast Asia," Putin said, according to KCNA.

The leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan are set to discuss security cooperation over North Korea, Ukraine and other issues at a trilateral summit on Aug. 18 at Camp David. (Reuters)

The Korea Times · by 2023-08-15 08:18 | Foreign Affairs · August 15, 2023

16. How to implement Washington Declaration

Excerpts:

Intelligence authorities in Korea and the U.S. agree that North Korea is planning various options for the use of nuclear weapons. One option of highest likelihood would be for North Korea to threaten South Korea with the use of tactical nuclear weapons to coerce the South to acquiesce with certain military or political options favored by the North. The Washington Declaration stipulates "joint planning and joint implementation" between Korea and the U.S. to deal with such eventualities. Now is the time to turn that language into detailed operational plans between Korea and the U.S.

Another issue that has been strongly emphasized by a large number of participants was the importance of Korea to strengthen its own capability. If Korea wishes to emerge as an active partner in the joint planning and implementation, it must not lose time in acquiring the "three-axis system" consisting of Kill Chain, Korea Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) and Korean Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) capabilities. It will significantly strengthen South Korea's own capability for deterrence through denial and punishment.

It was also emphasized that concerned officers in the Korean military must be thoroughly trained in nuclear weapons. The Washington Declaration stipulates simulation exercises between the strategic commands of Korea and the U.S., which would offer tailored opportunities to deepen Korean participants' understanding of nuclear weapons. All of these necessary actions add up to make a tall, very tall list. The governments of South Korea and the U.S. have no time to lose.

How to implement Washington Declaration

The Korea Times · August 15, 2023

By Ahn Ho-young

The Chey Institute started an ambitious new project in August 2018 soon after the Singapore Declaration between U.S. President Trump and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un. It was to invite a group of foreign policy and security watchers in Korea and organize a series of debates focused on the North Korean nuclear issue. The purpose of the project was to promote study and debate on North Korea's nuclear weapons, the most important issue for Korea's national security. The project was named "Deep Dive," maybe out of the organizer's desire to promote in-depth study on the issue.

The series has been continued over more than five years, and had its 13th session in late July. The session focused on how to effectively implement the Washington Declaration adopted between Presidents Yoon Suk Yeol and Joe Biden on the occasion of Yoon's state visit to the U.S. last April.

A large number of participants agreed that the measures set out in the declaration are presently the most effective measures to strengthen U.S. extended deterrence for Korea, given the fact that Korea's own nuclear program or the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Korea are not realistic options for the time being.

In fact, Korea and the U.S. had already formed several groups at different levels of government in order to strengthen extended deterrence. Those groups are focused on discussing most issues of policy and strategy. The Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG), formed in accordance with the Washington Declaration, distinguishes itself by offering an opportunity to have detailed consultations on military and operational issues. That's the kind of consultation we need now, given North Korea's capability and professed intentions.

Consultation on these issues will allow Korea to have enhanced access to information on U.S. nuclear assets and operational plans. It will also allow Korea to have an important voice on the deployment of U.S. strategic assets. In this connection, it was pointed out that SSBN Kentucky, an 18,000-ton Ohio-class nuclear submarine carrying 24 ballistic missiles, made a port call at Busan during the first meeting of the NCG in Seoul. The most important modus operandi for SSBNs is to avoid exposure. It's not surprising that the Kentucky's port call was the first such visit by a U.S. SSBN to a foreign port.

As for the legal nature of the Washington Declaration, it was pointed out that it is not an international treaty having the force of law, but a political declaration. For this reason, it is important not to lose the momentum in implementing the actions stipulated in the Washington Declaration, leading to the timely institutionalization of those actions. The best available time for implementation would be the coming year or so, given the domestic political timetable in the U.S. Most participants agreed that the Korean government must come up with a list of actions for implementation expeditiously.

The operational plans of the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) are presently limited to the use of conventional weapons. North Korea has amended its law on the use of nuclear weapons, and organized military units dedicated respectively to strategic and tactical nuclear weapons. Those units have now allegedly started training on the use of nuclear weapons. Given such developments in North Korea, the CFC's operational plans must be based on conventional-nuclear integration.

Intelligence authorities in Korea and the U.S. agree that North Korea is planning various options for the use of nuclear weapons. One option of highest likelihood would be for North Korea to threaten South Korea with the use of tactical nuclear weapons to coerce the South to acquiesce with certain military or political options favored by the North. The Washington Declaration stipulates "joint planning and joint implementation" between Korea and the U.S. to deal with such eventualities. Now is the time to turn that language into detailed operational plans between Korea and the U.S.

Another issue that has been strongly emphasized by a large number of participants was the importance of Korea to strengthen its own capability. If Korea wishes to emerge as an active partner in the joint planning and implementation, it must not lose time in acquiring the "three-axis system" consisting of Kill Chain, Korea Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) and Korean Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) capabilities. It will significantly strengthen South Korea's own capability for deterrence through denial and punishment.

It was also emphasized that concerned officers in the Korean military must be thoroughly trained in nuclear weapons. The Washington Declaration stipulates simulation exercises between the strategic commands of Korea and the U.S., which would offer tailored opportunities to deepen Korean participants' understanding of nuclear weapons. All of these necessary actions add up to make a tall, very tall list. The governments of South Korea and the U.S. have no time to lose.

Ahn Ho-young is chair professor at Kyungnam University. He served as vice foreign minister and Korean ambassador to the United States.

The Korea Times · August 15, 2023

17. Historical amnesia (Korea)

President Yoon is walking a political tightrope in Korea-Japan relations.

The Korea tTimes editorial board of critical of President Yoon's speech,

But I am sure President Yoon would agree with this statement on unification and I believe he is committed to this path forward:

The right path is to prevent effective subordination to former occupiers and rectify the wrong by reunifying this divided peninsula in peaceful and democratic ways.

President Yoon might have the three-nation summit with the U.S. later this week in mind when he refrained from saying what he thought was uncomfortable about Japan in his speech.

This criticism is all the more reason why we need a Camp David Consensus that states support for the pursuit of a free and unified Korea. It could be very good politically in South Korea to have Japan agree to a statement supporting Korean unification.

Historical amnesia

The Korea Times · August 15, 2023

Looking back on past is vital to avoid repeating mistakes

Korea celebrated the 78th National Liberation Day Tuesday.

It was good to see President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife follow Oh Seong-gyu, a wheelchair-bound Independence Army veteran, into the ceremony. Kim Young-gwan, another former independence fighter, was also beside the first couple.

However, Yoon's speech made many people wonder why he invited the two centenarians to the event.

After giving formal praises and thanks to patriotic martyrs, he made no mention of why they had to sacrifice their youthful years, or their entire lives, and what the nation should do so it will not repeat the unfortunate past.

"Korea and Japan are partners who share universal values and pursue common interests," Yoon said. "As partners that cooperate on security and the economy, Korea and Japan will be able to jointly contribute to peace and prosperity across the globe, collaborating and exchanging in a future-oriented manner."

The president then reiterated how the free and democratic South has emerged victorious over the totalitarian and communist North in every way. He also attacked "blind followers of Pyongyang disguised as progressives and democracy and human rights activists." The conservative president targeted civic groups, labor activists and political opponents. It was a far cry from his predecessors, right or left, who reflected on the past and stressed unity.

Unlike in the past, there was no mention of national reunification, even as a fleeting remark. What would patriotic martyrs say if they saw their divided fatherland, with the two split halves accelerating their confrontation instead of seeking reconciliation? One could not help but wonder what Oh, the former independence fighter, must have thought when he heard those words. He lived in his "former enemy country" until recently after leaving Korea amid the left-right fight in the aftermath of national liberation.

True, one cannot live in the past. The future should be more important than the past. There are also times when you must sacrifice the lesser for the greater. However, burying the past and moving to the future is difficult when perpetrators and victims do not share historical viewpoints.

While Koreans celebrated their liberation, some Japanese politicians and cabinet ministers paid homage to Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 Class-A war criminals are enshrined. Side by side them are tens of thousands of Korean soldiers and laborers forced to serve Japanese colonialists and memorized there against their will. Liberation will not come for these victims until Tokyo separates them from the shrine.

Some surviving former sexual slaves and forced laborers have yet to receive the Japanese government's apologies and formal compensation. They refuse to accept comforting words and money from the Korean government. All Tokyo has to do is say sorry and pay token money. But Japan would never do so, implying much regarding their future moves.

According to a survey, about a quarter of Gen Z in Korea do not know the exact meaning of National Liberation Day. Nearly one-third of them also see no problems touring Japan on this day. Millennials are a little better. The situation may be similar among Japanese youngsters. A nation can forgive historical adversaries but must not forget it, especially when some of the former perpetrators don't reflect on the past and would even return to it. The survey shows many younger Koreans do not know historical facts or know them incorrectly. Such historical amnesia is harmful to Japanese youngsters, too.

Former President Kim Dae-jung was right when he sought reconciliation with Japan. He noted that the unhappy history was only during some 35 years of the 1,500-year history of exchanges. Likewise, the division of Korea must be less than a century in the nation's 5,000-year history.

The right path is to prevent effective subordination to former occupiers and rectify the wrong by reunifying this divided peninsula in peaceful and democratic ways.

President Yoon might have the three-nation summit with the U.S. later this week in mind when he refrained from saying what he thought was uncomfortable about Japan in his speech.

Koreans will closely watch how his one-sided moves work in the next four years.

The Korea Times · August 15, 2023

18. Summit to set protocol for trilateral ties

JAROKUS

Summit to set protocol for trilateral ties

koreaherald.com · by Choi Si-young · August 15, 2023

By Choi Si-young

Published : 2023-08-15 15:12:41

Clockwise from top left: The US, Japanese and South Korean flags. (123rf)

The US, South Korea and Japan are expected to set up protocols to bolster three-way ties at a Camp David summit in Maryland on Friday, according to a media report.

News website Axios said Monday that Biden, South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will unveil the “Camp David Principles,” which will institutionalize progress in relations and make it harder for the two Asian leaders to reverse course amid their recent thaw over historical disputes.

“The symbolism of meeting at Camp David cannot be overstated,” the report said, quoting a senior Biden administration official.

“There is no question because of their rapprochement, we are able to do way more.”

At the US presidential retreat, the three leaders, the report added, will also establish a hotline to communicate during emergencies and agree to consult one another in crises. The US is reportedly seeking to have Seoul and Tokyo come to terms with saying in a joint statement that they will consult each other should either side be attacked.

But Yoon’s national security adviser has openly dismissed the possibility, dampening speculation over a potential trilateral security arrangement, something close to collective defense. Washington has mutual defense treaties with Seoul and Tokyo separately.

The US-led coalition is expected to launch steps on joint military exercises aimed at curbing North Korea’s missile advances. The isolated country still defies United Nations Security Council resolutions placed over its nuclear weapons programs.

Washington, Seoul and Tokyo will also likely address peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as Beijing continues to contend, if necessary, it could take over Taiwan, a self-ruled democratic island Washington supports.

In a Tuesday speech marking Korea’s independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule, Yoon described the Camp David gathering as setting a new milestone in three-way ties, highlighting a push to bolster security cooperation.

“The three countries have to share real-time information about the North’s weapons and work together on reconnaissance assets to cut off nuclear and missile threats from North Korea,” Yoon said.

Yoon called Japan a partner that shares with South Korea “universal values and common interests.” The Korean leader, who took power in May last year vowing closer ties with not only Washington, but also Tokyo, took initiative in mending strained relations with Japan in March. In May, Yoon and Kishida resumed regular visits to each other’s countries after a 12-year hiatus, a thaw Washington had long sought.

koreaherald.com · by Choi Si-young · August 15, 2023

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

Phone: 202-573-8647

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

If you do not read anything else in the 2017 National Security Strategy read this on page 14:

"A democracy is only as resilient as its people. An informed and engaged citizenry is the fundamental requirement for a free and resilient nation. For generations, our society has protected free press, free speech, and free thought. Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data. The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life. No external threat can be allowed to shake our shared commitment to our values, undermine our system of government, or divide our Nation."

Access NSS HERE

Company Name | Website

Republic of Korea National Day - United States Department of State

Republic of Korea National Day

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