An excavator dismantles facilities on the roof of the former Japanese Embassy, built in 1976, in Seoul on Nov. 2, 2015, as the embassy has implemented a project to rebuild its building, scheduled for completion by 2020. The embassy has been running operations at a nearby building since July 2015. (Yonhap)
I have to agree that even though the Park-Abe summit did not lead to any breakthroughs, just the fact they met was significant considering all the bickering the past few years. Hopefully this will lead to better future cooperation as long as Prime Minister Abe can keep his political team in check in regards to making controversial comments that inflame tensions with Seoul:
South Korean President Park Geun-hye (R) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shake hands prior to their summit talks at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Nov. 2, 2015. (Yonhap)
Experts on South Korea-Japan ties welcomed the results of Monday’s summit between President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, saying the meeting paved the way for better bilateral relations even without producing concrete outcomes.
Park and Abe held their first bilateral talks in Seoul on the sidelines of a trilateral summit with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. The format was intended to keep the first South Korea-Japan summit in three and a half years as low-key and practical as possible amid disputes over shared history.
A major stumbling block in the two countries’ relations has been the issue of Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II. South Korea demands Japan offer a sincere apology and compensation to the victims before they all die, while Tokyo insists all issues related to its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula were settled under the normalization treaty of 1965. [Yonhap]
As we have seen in the past in South Korea, the anti-US activists like to use the environmental card to bash the US military with. The Japanese government is getting out in front of this issue by getting this agreement in place that allows them to have personnel on US military bases to monitor environmental issues:
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter listens as Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida makes brief remarks during a signing ceremony of the “Agreement to Supplement the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) on Environmental Stewardship” at the Pentagon Sept. 24, 2015. GLENN FAWCETT/DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
The U.S. and Japan signed an accord Monday that will permit Japanese access to U.S. military facilities in Japan for environmental surveys.
The agreement – signed at the Pentagon by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida – supplements the long-standing Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement that allows the United States to maintain military bases in Japan. While this does not officially amend the SOFA, it is the first such bilateral supplement to the agreement since its implementation in 1960, according to a defense official who was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. [Stars & Stripes]
I would think the Japanese would want the Aegis ships deployed more to collect data on the rocket launch with their radars:
The Japanese government is mulling deploying Aegis destroyers in the East Sea and the East China Sea to intercept a long-range rocket North Korea plans to launch around the 70th anniversary of its ruling Workers’ Party on October 10.
Japan’s Sankei Shimbun daily reported on Sunday that Tokyo is considering deploying the destroyers equipped with sea-based missile defenses to the East Sea and the East China Sea to prevent the North’s rocket or its debris from falling on Japanese territory.
The paper said Japan is also considering deploying the Air Self-Defense Forces’ surface-to-air guided Patriot missiles in the area near the capital city and Okinawa. [KBS World Radio]
I would assume that the South Korean government was expecting this kind of criticism from their political opposition and had a quick response available. There is just no way that the US military would bring Japanese troops on to the peninsula without the direct approval of the ROK government:
South Korea’s Chief Defense Minister Han Min-koo (Yonhap)
South Korea is capable of turning down any U.S. request for the entry of Japanese armed forces onto the Korean Peninsula, Defense Minister Han Min-koo said Monday in his latest efforts to defuse concerns over Japan’s rearmament moves.
Japan passed a package of security bills into law in the wee hours of Saturday, unshackling its previously self defense-only armed forces from limitations imposed after World War II and empowering them to fight in overseas battles.
The rearmament step has sparked concerns here that Japanese forces could join U.S. troops stationed in South Korea unilaterally in the event of a war with North Korea.
Rep. Lee Choon-suk of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy raised the issue of unwanted Japanese forces during a parliamentary audit, asking Han if the country could turn down the U.S. military’s request for the entry of Japanese forces in the event of a North Korea-waged war. [Korea Times]
