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South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul (second from right) speaks at a press conference following a meeting between the foreign and defense ministers of South Korea and Australia on May 1, 2024. (courtesy of MOFA)

The foreign ministers and defense ministers of South Korea and Australia have discussed the possibility of Korea taking part in “Pillar 2” of a program for the joint development of military technology under AUKUS, a defense pact between the US, the UK and Australia.

Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Defense Minister Shin Won-sik met with Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles in Melbourne, Australia, for the two countries’ sixth “two plus two” meeting of its defense and foreign ministers.

A joint statement adopted by the two countries’ ministers said that the “ROK welcomed that the AUKUS countries are considering cooperation with additional partners on Pillar ll advanced capability projects.”

“We already engage closely together in relation to technology. So, as AUKUS Pillar Two develops, I think there will be opportunities in the future,” Marles said in a press conference held immediately after the meeting.

AUKUS divides its areas of cooperation into Pillar I, which involves providing nuclear-powered submarine technology to Australia, and Pillar II, in which partner countries will work together on eight areas of development, including quantum technologies, undersea capabilities, hypersonic capabilities, artificial intelligence and cyber capabilities.

While AUKUS has said it doesn’t plan to share nuclear submarine technology with any other countries, the group is reportedly adding Japan, Korea, Canada and New Zealand as partners for Pillar II.

While AUKUS Pillar II is not a direct channel of military exchange, Korean participation would still be significant since it would represent active participation in the security grid that the US is building.

Hitherto, the US has relied on a hub-and-spoke strategy of forging bilateral alliances that are all centered on the US. But more recently, it has been building a lattice-like security grid of various “minilateral” partnerships including the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (between the US, Japan, Australia and India), AUKUS, trilateral cooperation with South Korea and Japan, and trilateral cooperation with Japan and the Philippines.

Nevertheless, for Korea to join the US-led security latticework ultimately means participating in the containment of China. And indeed, cross-strait relations were mentioned in Korea and Australia’s joint statement, which said the ministers “reaffirmed the importance of preserving peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the region.”

Experts say that even if Korea joins the US-led security arrangement, it will still need to manage relations with China.

“AUKUS is at the heart of the latticework that the US envisions, so I think that Korea joining that arrangement is a decent plan in terms of national security. That said, we need to come up with logical arguments that the Chinese will find persuasive and hold strategic dialogue with them,” said Lee Baek-soon, who formerly served as Korea’s ambassador to Australia.

The joint statement also noted that “Minister Cho and Minister Shin expressed the ROK’s interest in the Quad” and criticized North Korea for its repeated ballistic missile launches while calling for it to return to dialogue.

By Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter

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