[Editorial] The danger of military exercises with the US and Japan

Posted on : 2016-05-17 15:50 KST Modified on : 2016-05-17 15:50 KST
S. Korea
S. Korea

Joint exercises for ballistic missile defense by South Korea, the US and Japan will reportedly be held for the first time in Hawaii at the end of June. One Aegis-level destroyer from each country will be dispatched for the missile defense exercises, in which US aircraft will stand in for actual ballistic missiles. This is obviously a joint military exercise between the three countries, and it can be regarded as another step in a gradual transition to a trilateral military alliance.

While the exercises are ostensibly designed to prevent North Korea from committing a provocation with its missiles, they are likely to give the impression that South Korea is joining the efforts by the US and Japan to counter China’s rise as a military power.

When we further consider the possible deployment of the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Air Defense) missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula - which has been jointly supported by the US and South Korea and opposed by China and Russia - this could easily escalate from a simple military issue into an issue of international relations and security. This implies the serious ramifications that this could have not only for South Korea’s national security but on the balance of power in Northeast Asia.

Despite this, the behavior of the South Korean military officials that are promoting and organizing the exercises has been opaque and aloof. To begin with, it is problematic that the military only confirmed the exercises after it was forced to following a report by Japanese newspaper the Asahi Shimbun.

Even more duplicitous is the military’s insistence that the exercises are only related to intelligence drills, which means they fall within the scope of the information-sharing agreement about the North Korean missile threat reached by South Korea, the US, and Japan in Dec. 2014, and not related to missile interception. This explanation is about as plausible as saying that a exercises are not firing exercises because participants only shared information about the location of the targets without firing any bullets.

If national security were in danger, we could carry out exercises that go much further than these, but the military must not be allowed to decide whether or not such drills are in the national interest. Considering that these exercises might appear to be part of building a missile defense system between South Korea, the US, and Japan and strengthening their military alliance, they are a prime example of a matter that must be discussed and decided in the context of the larger national interest.

Foreign military policies that lack national support are liable to put the country in danger.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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