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The South Korean, US, and Japanese naval forces carried out joint anti-submarine drills in the waters south of Jeju Island on April 3-4. (courtesy of the ROK Navy)

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, unification and foreign affairs editor

When it comes to attire, one must consider the time, place, and the occasion. It would not be appropriate for one to wear the same outfit to a wedding, a funeral, and to the gym.

This principle holds not only when it comes to dressing, but also in regard to military training. When it comes to joint exercises, a country needs to think carefully about where and when they are to be held. How and where those drills are held send important messages about diplomacy and national security.

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration has, from the time it took office, banged the drum for “overcoming of the North Korean nuclear threat,” and has held four joint naval exercises with the US and Japan near the Korean Peninsula. However, the more recent drills have been held with no regard for timing and location.

On Feb. 22, South Korea, the US and Japan held a missile defense drill in the East Sea near Dokdo. Feb. 22 is “Takeshima Day,” a day set aside by the Japanese prefecture of Shimane to celebrate its claim that Dokdo is Japanese territory. (Takeshima is the name Japan has given to Dokdo.)

One day after the drill, Kim Byung-joo of the Democratic Party asked Minister of Defense Lee Jong-sup why the drill took place near Dokdo on Takeshima Day. In response, Lee said that Kore had planned for the drill to take place the day before, but preparations took longer than expected.

“We had to postpone the drill to the next day,” he said, “so it was all completely by chance.”

Trilateral military exercises near Dokdo on Takeshima Day? “Ignorance is bliss” is the phrase that comes to mind.

South Korea, the US and Japan also held anti-submarine exercises with the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier on April 3-4. The three countries all released statements announcing the drill, but all countries stated the location and the purpose of the drill differently. The South Korean Ministry of Defense described the location as “the high seas south of Jeju,” while both the US Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force said it was in the “East China Sea.” The two phrases describe the same location.

It is unclear why only South Korea specified the location as “the waters south of Jeju.” It probably wanted to avoid criticism that the exercise was aimed at China rather than at North Korea. South Korea, the US and Japan held anti-submarine warfare drills to detect and destroy submarines in the waters 320 kilometers south of Jeju, in seas south of the 30th parallel north.

That location is about 300 nautical miles (555 kilometers) from the disputed Senkaku Islands (referred to as Diaoyudao in China), which are claimed by both China and Japan. This happens to be on the way out to the Pacific Ocean for China’s North Sea Fleet, homeported in Qingdao, Shandong Province, and the East Sea Fleet, homeported in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.

Japan’s southwestern region, Kyushu to Okinawa, is a strategic bulwark against Chinese expansion into the Pacific. Japan is concerned about its defense posture in the southwest as military tensions over the Taiwan Strait rise. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force press release explained, the joint exercises were conducted “in order to strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-US Alliance and to advance Japan-US-ROK trilateral security coordination.”

“These exercises build shared interoperability and support a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the US Navy press release said. In this instance, a “free and open Indo-Pacific” means keeping China in check.

There is no mention of North Korea either statement made by the US and Japan. In contrast, South Korea’s stated goal of the drills is to “improve the response capabilities of South Korea, the US, and Japan to underwater threats, including North Korea’s increasingly advanced submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).”

This raises the question of why a “counter-North Korean submarine” exercise would be held in the East China Sea when North Korean submarines based in the seas on either side of the peninsula are unlikely to reach as far south as the East China Sea.

The different explanations for the location and purpose of the anti-submarine warfare exercises by South Korea, the US and Japan reflect the different threats faced and national interests pursued by each of the three parties. Although the three countries emphasize trilateral security cooperation in unison, South Korea’s main concern is jointly dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat, and the main concern of the US and Japan is joint pressure on China.

In order to defend their interests, individuals and countries need to have a clear understanding of where they stand. If they neglect to do so, they will be left dancing to the tune of others.

Dressing out of context in everyday life may only invite ridicule, but ill-timed South Korea-US and US-Japan exercises can be an embarrassing display of showing that we are nothing more than pawns in the long game of international politics.

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