Tag: Japan

The tensions between South Korea and Japan could end up having security impacts as well if the Blue House seeks to end the GSOMIA which authorizes the two countries to share intelligence information:

 A rancorous diplomatic spat between South Korea and Japan is casting doubts over the fate of a military intelligence-sharing pact seen as a rare symbol of their trust and a key platform for trilateral security cooperation involving the United States.

The tussle that started from a simmering row over Japan’s wartime forced labor has been escalating into the economic domain with Tokyo’s July 4 measure to tighten restrictions on exports to South Korea of key industrial materials. 

It is now feared to be spilling over into the security realm, apparently putting Washington on edge as the U.S. is keen on firming up cooperation with its two Asian allies to promote regional stability amid North Korea’s lingering threats and China’s growing assertiveness.

The General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) between Seoul and Tokyo is automatically renewed every year unless either side expresses its intent to rescind it 90 days ahead of the end of its extendable one-year period.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but clearly the Moon administration is willing to bargain with the GSOMIA because they feel the current peace process with North Korea means intelligence from Japan is not needed.

However, this whole dispute could be ended today if the Moon administration does not move forward with seizing the assets of Japanese companies in South Korea. However, the Moon administration miscalculated in their Japan bashing and have gone so far now it is hard politically for the Moon administration to change course.

I would not be surprised if this man had a history of mental problems:

A 78-year-old South Korean man died hours after setting himself ablaze near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Friday, police said, at a time of worsening tensions between Seoul and Tokyo.

The man, surnamed Kim, ignited a fire inside his car parked in front of the building where the Embassy is located. The man died later Friday while being treated at a Seoul hospital, police said.

Police said Kim had phoned an acquaintance earlier to say he planned to self-immolate to express his antipathy toward Japan.

Kim’s family told investigators that his father-in-law had been conscripted as a forced laborer when the Korean Peninsula was under Japan’s colonial rule from 1910-45, according to a police statement.

Associated Press

Of course the news media did not bother to fact check if he was in fact a force laborer. Simple math puts this highly in doubt. The article says he is 78 years old, which means that in 1945 when most of the forced labor happened he would have been 4 years old.

I am not surprised that the U.S. government would not side with anyone over this dispute. I would think the U.S. government may look at this as why should it put its relationship with Japan at risk because the Moon administration over reached in its Japan bashing for domestic political reasons and is now paying the consequences.:

The United States takes the tensions between Korea and Japan very seriously but cannot play a “mediating role,” according to the chair of the Korean National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee who said the message was relayed to him by the U.S. State Department point man for East Asian affairs. 

Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, a third-term lawmaker of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, met with David R. Stilwell, the new U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Wednesday evening amid the diplomatic spat over Japan’s recent export restrictions on Korea.  

Yoon told the JoongAng Ilbo over the phone that Stilwell told him that the United States “could not take one side or the other because taking one side means losing the other.” 

Stilwell then conveyed, according to Yoon, that Washington “encouraged its two friends,” Seoul and Tokyo, “to resolve the issue through dialogue.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is another claim that has come out of the allegation that USFK tried to add Japan as part of the United Nations Command (UNC); they also wanted Germany to join as well:

 Early this year, the UNC finalized a legal review to lowering the bar for which countries can serve as sending states, according to sources, which could include nations like Japan or Germany.

It was also revealed by South Korea’s Defense Ministry on Thursday that the United States tried to have Germany dispatch military officers to the UNC, but the plan fizzled out due to opposition from Seoul. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

USFK for their part has denied the allegation they tried to have Japan become part of the UNC.

You have to love the irony of President Moon asking for “sincere consultations” with Japan when his administration withdrew from the prior comfort women agreement and have been using the courts to further attack Japan for domestic political purposes:

President Moon Jae-in called on Japan on Monday to withdraw its recent export control against South Korean firms, describing it as an attempt to limit trade for a political purpose.

Breaking his strategic reticence on the sensitive issue, Moon said his administration will first make “calm” efforts to resolve it diplomatically.

In case of “actual damages” to South Korean companies, however, the government will be left with no other choice but to take “necessary” measures, he stressed, presiding over a meeting with senior Cheong Wa Dae officials.

He added he hopes to avoid such a vicious cycle of tit for tat.

“(I) call on the Japanese side to retract the measure and call for sincere consultations between the two countries,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I don’t see the Abe administration bending on this until the Moon administration agrees to uphold the 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.

This helps to send a message to China about the rising will of the Japanese government to project naval power:

One of Japan’s largest warships, the helicopter carrier Izumo, offers a glimpse of where its military is headed: For the first time, troops from a newly formed amphibious brigade of the Self-Defense Forces participated in an extended naval deployment.

The Izumo left Subic, a former U.S. naval base in the Philippines, at the end of a two-month deployment in the Indo-Pacific region at a time of prolonged tensions involving China’s sweeping territorial claims in and around the South China Sea. The carrier, along with the destroyers Murasame and Akebono, just finished a series of drills with the United States and other countries.

Japan’s ability to project military power beyond its borders is severely constrained by the commitment to pacifism and rejection of use of military force in conflict enshrined in its post-World War II Constitution, though in 2015 it was reinterpreted to allow the use of force in defending itself and its allies.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made amending the Constitution to allow the military greater leeway one of his lifetime goals. President Donald Trump has sought to help that cause, calling repeatedly for Japan to do more to defend itself under its alliance with the U.S.

In May, Japan conducted its first quadrilateral exercise with France, the U.S. and Australia in the Bay of Bengal. France deployed its flagship nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the FS Charles de Gaulle, while the United States sent a missile destroyer, the William P. Lawrence. Other drills have included Canada, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines.

Japan is preparing to reconfigure the Izumo to accommodate U.S. stealth fighters, including F-35Bs, after announcing it would purchase 42 of its own. The aircraft are designed to operate with short takeoffs and vertical landings, such as on carriers.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link, but the Japanese carriers are going to be able to project quite a bit more power once they are equipped with the F-35B’s.

I don’t see the Japanese backing down on their economic retaliation until the ROK government resolves the forced labor court ruling issue:

“Japan may suffer from the government’s strategy in the long term, but by then, the damage on our companies will be even greater,” Kang said.

Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong Global University, speculated Korea will “never beat Japan in the economic tit-for-tat.”

“It’s apparent Japan has planned its retaliatory measures carefully and meticulously, whereas Korea has come up with a counterstrategy hastily and hurriedly,” Park said. “I bet Japan has more cards to play as the economic showdown intensifies. I’m afraid that’s not the case for Korea.”

Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, said, “Our countermeasures are not very practical.”

The analysts suggested going “back to the beginning” and resolving the dispute diplomatically.

“Everything started from the diplomatic dispute over Japan’s wartime past. Korea should resume talks with Japan and concentrate on forced labor,” Park said.

As an option, he cited the need for President Moon to send a special envoy, such as National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong, to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Shin Yul voiced a similar view.

“I’m not sure whether sending a special envoy is a good idea, but I’m certain mobilizing all possible diplomatic means is necessary at this point,” he said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration may have woken a sleeping giant. If the economic retaliation by Japan is ultimately effective, this could be something the Japanese government continues to turn to every time the ROK government pushes an anti-Japanese issue for domestic political purposes.

I think President Trump is more interested in modifying the treaty than ending it:

 The Japanese government has dismissed a U.S. media report saying that President Donald Trump spoke of ending the two nations’ longstanding postwar defense pact.

Bloomberg News, citing anonymous sources, reported Monday that Trump had privately mused about withdrawing from the “one-sided” security treaty with the United States’ longtime ally.

The president thinks the accord is unfair because it promises U.S. aid if Japan is attacked but doesn’t oblige Japan to come to America’s defense, the Bloomberg report said.

However, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters at a news conference in Tokyo Tuesday that “there is no such talk as mentioned in the report.” The Japanese government has dismissed a U.S. media report saying that President Donald Trump spoke of ending the two nations’ longstanding postwar defense pact.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It appears that the Abe administration has lost patience with the Moon administration over the forced labor ruling and decided to do what the Chinese did and economically retaliate against South Korea:

 South Korea’s trade minister said Monday the government plans to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Japan’s decision to tighten the rules for exports of semiconductor and display materials to Seoul, amid a simmering diplomatic row over wartime force labor. 

“South Korea has been making efforts to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with Japan,” Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo told reporters, describing the Japanese measure as an “economic retaliation” against South Korea’s Supreme Court ruling on compensation for wartime forced labor.

Sung added the action contradicts not only WTO rules but also global efforts to seek a free, fair and predictable free-trade environment as proposed at the Group of 20 summit held in Japan last week.

“(The government) will continue to communicate closely with local firms to minimize the impact, and will take this event as an opportunity to beef up the competitiveness of the country’s parts, materials, and equipment (sectors),” Sung said, adding that Seoul will take all necessary measures including diversifying import sources.

Earlier in the day, the Japanese government said it will strengthen regulations on the export to South Korea of high-tech chemicals used in semiconductor and smartphone production starting Thursday, apparently in response to South Korea’s ruling on compensation for wartime forced labor.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but for those that have not been following this issue, the Japanese side does not dispute the forced labor claim, what they dispute is that they already paid compensation with the 1965 treaty. Instead of handing out money for individual compensation, the ROK government used the money to develop the economy instead.

As I have always said about this issue is the ROK government going to support compensation claims against China for their role in the destruction of South Korea during the Korean War that killed tens of thousands of South Koreans?

Speaking of China they have just launched their latest economic retaliation against South Korea for hosting the THAAD battery:

China removed ~120 billboard/bus station ads of #SouthKorean companies #Samsung, #Hyundai & #Kia overnight on 6/29 with no compensation nor notice. It recruited ~400 people using cranes & solder equipment. China’s pressure tactic.https://t.co/1V7PrA1Kft

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) July 1, 2019

Despite all the economic retaliation against South Korea from China over the THAAD dispute, the Moon administration has not lodged complaints to the WTO. This is just the latest example of hypocrisy between how the ROK government responds to the Japanese government compared to China.