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| South Korean and Japanese national flags raised ahead of the arrival of President Yoon Suk Yeol at Tokyo International Airport in Tokyo, Thursday. North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, Thursday, as South Korea and Japan are poised to reinforce their security ties. Reuters-Yonhap |
South Korea, Japan poised to reinforce security ties
By Jung Min-ho
Pyongyang fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on Thursday, as Seoul and Tokyo are moving to reinforce their security ties in the face of North Korea's growing aggression.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters that it detected the missile test ― on a steep trajectory ― from Sunan, a district in Pyongyang, at around 7:10 a.m. It flew about 1,000 kilometers during its 70-minute flight before falling into the East Sea.
North Korea's latest provocation ― its first ICBM test in a month and third weapons test this week ― comes amid South Korea's joint military drills with the U.S. and several hours before President Yoon Suk Yeol's summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo.
At a National Security Council meeting, Yoon ordered his top security and military officials to step up the intensity of the exercises, saying North Korea will "certainly pay the price" for its reckless provocations. He then told them to enhance trilateral security cooperation with the U.S. and Japan.
Speaking to reporters in Japan, Kishida also called for close cooperation among "allies and like-minded nations" before his own security meeting.
Later that day, Kim Gunn, the top nuclear negotiator of South Korea, spoke with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts ― Sung Kim and Takehiro Funakoshi ― to reaffirm their combined efforts to counter North Korea's intensifying threats while voicing united condemnation of the missile test.
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| A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, Thursday. AP-Yonhap |
All of this suggests South Korea's reconciliation with Japan in the area of security and beyond. Although Yoon did not directly address the possibility of normalizing the two countries' intelligence-sharing pact, known as the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), in his recent interview with Japanese media, he said data-sharing in regard to Pyongyang's threats is in the interests of both South Korea and Japan. The previous Moon Jae-in administration suspended GSOMIA amid diplomatic tensions over historical issues.
In recent years, North Korea has been trying to diversify its missile-launching platforms and delivery means with the clear aim of undermining South Korea's detection capabilities. After the latest ICBM launch, concerns have been raised that it might have been a solid-fuel system, which is faster to launch and more difficult to detect ― a possibility under review by South Korea and the U.S.
Some experts believe North Korea's progress in its weapons development has pushed South Korea to work more closely with Japan, whose military is equipped with advanced spy satellites, radars and submarine-detection technology.
"While South Korea can help Japan detect the early signs of North Korea's military activities, Japan can share the details of its missiles that fly or fall beyond South Korea's radar range," Kim Jung-sup, a security expert at the Sejong Institute, a think tank, told The Korea Times. "But it remains to be seen how much we can ― and should ― gain from security cooperation with Japan. If we strengthen the ties too much and too fast, we risk being dragged deep into the U.S.-led strategy designed to counter China's growing influence in the region. This could trigger reactions we don't want, such as strengthening ties between North Korea, China and Russia."
On Monday, South Korean and U.S. troops started their 11-day Freedom Shield exercise on a scale not seen since 2017. North Korea accused the allies of preparing for war, vowing to take "overwhelming" action against it. Many worry that North Korea could ratchet up tensions further with more weapons tests, possibly its first nuclear test since 2017.
