hankyoreh

In March, United States Pacific Command Commander William Fallon, speaking before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, revealed American intentions to create a three-way alliance between the U.S., Korea, and Japan, one that goes beyond the alliances the U.S. has with Korea and Japan respectively.

His comments are symbolic evidence of how the rapid pace of growth in the U.S.-Japan alliance is something that affects Korea. Some observers predict that Korea may be forced to join hands with Japan militarily, whether it likes it or not, because of the U.S. strategy in Northeast Asia. Concerns were amplified last month, when the U.S. and Japan agreed on a reorganization plan for United States Forces Japan (USFJ). Experts are saying that once the U.S. 1st Corps Command and Japan’s Ground Self Defense Forces (SDF) Command begin "cohabitation" at Camp Zama, their command structures are to be fully integrated and that it is not entirely impossible the U.S. and Japan could act together in an emergency on the Korean Peninsula.

Kim Chang-su and Song Hwa-seop of the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis wrote in a report issued in May that the belief there could be joint U.S.-Japanese operations on the peninsula is a "misunderstanding," because a 1997 defense cooperation agreement between the two countries stipulates that the SDF can only support USFJ and cannot participate in military operations.

However, other observers claim that possibility does exist. Media reports say Japan is trying to have the 1997 agreement replaced with something else.

There has been a lot of talk about active exchange between leaders in Korea and Japanese military establishments since the summit between Kim Dae-jung and Keizo Obuchi in 1998 and the 2003 summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and Junichiro Koizumi, but currently such high-level exchange is not taking place. The defense ministers of Korea and Japan met in January of last year, but Korean defense minister Yun Kwang-woong’s visit to Japan has been postponed indefinitely. With issues like ownership of the Dokdo islets, high-level Japanese officials’ visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, and historical distortions in Japanese textbooks in the air, relations are particularly bad between the two countries right now. Still, the Ministry of National Defense says there will continue to be working-level military exchange as long as there is a need for it.