hankyoreh

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent and Seok Jin-hwan, Blue House correspondent

A senior South Korean official said on Oct. 25 that the government has asked for its position on the Korean Peninsula and South Korean sovereignty to be reflected in an amendment of the US-Japan defense cooperation guidelines that would recognize Japan’s right to “collective self-defense.”

Speaking with foreign correspondents in Washington that day, the official said collective self-defense was “one of the rights of ordinary countries as specified in the UN Charter,” but added that Seoul’s consent would be needed “in any cases where this is extended to implicate the Korean Peninsula and South Korean sovereignty.”

The official also said that South Korea had told the US this should be included in any amendment of the guidelines, and that the US had said it “understood.”

But it remains unclear to what extent Washington plans to reflect Seoul’s position.

There have been some worries in South Korea that if the US forces in South Korea have to respond to a North Korean attack on the peninsula, Japan could use the need to “exercise self-defensive rights” as an excuse to send its own troops in. In other words, Japan could use USFK to interfere on the peninsula even if South Korea does not want it to.

The official indicated that Seoul would not actively oppose Japan’s right to collective self-defense, saying it was not an issue for South Korea to agree or disagree on.

“It’s a matter for the Japanese public to choose,” the official said. “But we said that because of Japan’s history of invasion, there needs to be a clear defense policy, and a restrained use of military force could allay concerns in other countries.”

“As far as these issues go, a division of roles needs to be specified in terms of the US-Japan alliance.”

The message seems to be that South Korea is obliged to accept the US beefing up its alliance with Japan and tolerating its ally’s buildup of military power as a way of countering China while shouldering its own massive financial deficit.

“We stated a general position, but we plan to communicate our position to ensure nothing prejudicial to us gets into the US-Japan agreement, while working to ensure things don’t go in the wrong direction,” said a source in the Blue House who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another source in the Ministry of National Defense said it was a matter for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to decide, as “things related to Japan’s collective self-defense rights are a diplomatic matter.”

The same source also commented on the ongoing debate over whether South Korea should take part in the US’s missile defense program.

“There are differences between the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) system and the US’s missile defense system,” the source said. “We have agreed that there could be a synergy effect from the potential sharing or linkages, but nothing has been said beyond that.”

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