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South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin bump elbows for the media before their meeting Wednesday at the defense ministry in Seoul. (photo pool)

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that South Korea and the US face a shared threat in the Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia, and the Indo Pacific. Austin said that an important part of tackling that threat is cooperation between South Korea, the US and Japan, which will require better relations between South Korea and Japan.

An official from South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said that Austin made the remarks while discussing regional cooperation at the end of his meeting with South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook.

Austin was apparently calling on South Korea and Japan — which are both US allies — to repair their ties and join in security cooperation with the US as part of American efforts to check the rise of China.

The souring of relations between South Korea and Japan over the past few years has stymied bilateral security cooperation.

In December 2018, the two countries quarreled over whether a South Korean destroyer had trained its fire-control radar on a Japanese patrol plane. Then in 2019, a joint search and rescue exercise that the two countries had held on odd years was ended when Japan refused to take part.

In contrast, trilateral security cooperation between South Korea, the US and Japan has moved forward with few problems.

“Last year alone, South Korea, the US and Japan held four missile warning exercises designed to counter the threat of North Korean missiles,” an official with the South Korean military said.

Austin apparently asked South Korea and Japan to improve their relations and cooperate with the hope of more effectively countering the challenge posed by China.

The Pentagon chief also emphasized the Chinese threat in his opening remarks at the meeting.

“Given the unprecedented challenges posed by both the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and China, the US-ROK alliance has never been more important,” Austin said, using North Korea’s official name.

Suh Wook was quoted by a defense ministry official as making the following response:

“In the big picture, the US Indo-Pacific strategy is consistent with our government’s New Southern Strategy. We will strive to ensure that our security cooperation with Japan is not disrupted.”

During the meeting, Suh reportedly also explained the need to quickly proceed with transferring wartime operational control (OPCON) of the South Korean military to Seoul.

“Suh spoke on the matter for quite some time, and Austin listened attentively and suggested that we discuss the matter in the future,” a defense ministry official said.

The defense ministry released an official statement after the meeting in which it said that Suh and Austin had “reconfirmed South Korea and the US’s joint goals of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of lasting peace.”

The ministry also said that the two officials had agreed on the importance of trilateral cooperation with Japan and of pursuing an OPCON transfer when conditions allow it.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff reporter

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