Seoul is drawing closer to Beijing while distancing itself from Japan, according to an important message in a new defense white paper by the South Korean Defense Ministry.
In the new defense white paper released on Tuesday (Feb. 2), South Korea’s relationship with Japan was downgraded from the previously used “partnership” to “neighbor” and ranked after Korea-China relations, reflecting the cooling of Korea-Japan relations. The white paper’s description of Korea-Japan relations mainly emphasizes the conflicts between the two countries.
Korea-Japan relations are cooling, while Korea-China relations are heating up. In terms of cooperation with China, the new white paper removes the conflict between the two countries over the SAD anti-missile system in 2016 and adds “South Korea and China held summit talks in 2017, the first year of Moon’s inauguration, to normalize bilateral relations. “The whole statement of Korea-China relations is also presented. The entire presentation of Korea-China relations also took on a positive tone.
Following the release of the South Korean defense white paper, U.S. Defense Department spokesman John Supple said the same day that Washington will continue to expand cooperation between the United States, South Korea and Japan. In an email response to Yonhap News Agency, he said it is “critical to maintaining regional peace, prosperity and stability – including addressing North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile threats, and maintaining a rules-based international order.”
In July 2016, the U.S. and South Korea officially announced the implementation of the deployment of the SAD system, and China issued a number of countermeasures against South Korea, leading to a rapid deterioration in relations between the two sides. After Moon Jae-in took office, the five-year hiatus in the Korea-China defense strategic dialogue resumed in October 2019. The change is seen as paving the way for the two countries to resume relations.
South Korea’s National Defense White Paper is released every other year, with the last release in 2019. Japanese and South Korean media reported that Japan removed “defense cooperation with South Korea in a number of fields” from its National Defense White Paper in 2020, and South Korea’s revision of Japan’s statement was seen as a possible “tit-for-tat” move by South Korea. The change in relations between Japan and South Korea began in 2018.
The change in Japan-South Korea relations began in 2018. South Korea’s Supreme Court in late October 2018 ordered Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumikin to pay 400 million won (equivalent to $350,000) in compensation to four laborers who were forcibly conscripted by Japan during its colonization of the Korean Peninsula. The Japanese government strongly condemned the ruling, insisting that the compensation issue was “completely and finally” settled in the 1965 Japan-Korea Claims Agreement between the two countries.
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