South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup. Photo: Screenshot of Xinhua News Agency video
On March 23, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sub said South Korea "will not promote the ROK-U.S.-Japan military alliance," Yonhap reported. Because this statement contrasts strongly with the words and deeds of the South Korean government Yoon Seok-yue in the triangular relationship between South Korea, the United States and Japan, it has attracted widespread attention.
On the same day, Lee Jong-sub attended the plenary meeting of the National Defense Committee of the South Korean National Assembly. During the meeting, lawmaker Sung-il Jong asked Lee Jong-seop about "the prospect of the ROK-US-Japan military alliance," and he replied that "the expression of the ROK-US-Japan military alliance is not appropriate" and even said that "there is no such possibility."
During his visit to Japan, Yoon Seok-yue continued to forcibly push the ROK-US-Japan, especially ROK-Japan relations, closer together, and during his visit to Japan, he made various "reconciliation" gestures toward Japan, even ignoring the ROK's long-term political bottom line, and did not hesitate to make major compromises on the sensitive issues of colonization and Japan's historical responsibility during World War II.
For this reason, the South Korean government and public were in an uproar, and at the same time, they all decided that Yoon Seok-yue's move was intended to cater to the United States and was related to his desire to build a "South Korea-US-Japan military alliance". However, the statement of its defense minister is completely the opposite, which inevitably makes the outside world wonder about the true intentions of Yoon Seok-yue's government.
It is Yoon Seok-yue's "hedging" remediation strategy
Speaking of the "ROK-US-Japan military alliance", we have to mention the previous Korea-Japan Agreement on the Protection of Military Information (GSOMIA).
In 2016, South Korea signed the GSOMIA after a 4-year delay. However, only three years later, due to Japan's continuous strengthening of restrictions on the export of semiconductor raw materials to South Korea, South Korea intends to abolish GSOMIA. Although it was not formally abolished under US intervention, GSOMIA has been operating "abnormally".
After Yoon Seok-yue came to power, on November 24, 2022, he authorized the Ministry of Defense to announce that GSOMIA "automatically renews its contract for one year" until November 22, 2023.
On March 7 of this year, after the South Korean government announced the "solution to the problem of compensation for victims of forced labor in wartime Japan" that caused a national outcry, Defense Ministry spokesman Jeon Ha-kyu said that South Korea "will discuss various matters related to strengthening security cooperation between South Korea, Japan and South Korea and the United States" in view of "the labor compensation issue has been resolved."
At the time, Yonhap News Agency reported that "with the announcement of the above compensation settlement, it is expected that the "normalization" of GSOMIA will be implemented sooner or later." Some people have pointed out that the resumption of GSOMIA normalization may promote the signing of the Mutual Provision of Materials and Services Agreement (ACSA) between South Korea and Japan and South Korea's accession to the US missile defense (MD) system.
South Korean soldiers and military aircraft participating in the Dokdo Defense Exercise on August 25, 2019. Photo: Xinhua News Agency
Lee Jong-sup also denied all of this at the meeting, claiming that CSOMIA "has nothing to do with these issues" and that the South Korean government "has not indicated its intention to join the missile defense system and has no reason to join."
Although there are obvious differences between left and right, North and opposition in South Korean politics today, and the positions of both sides are difficult to compromise, before Yoon Seok-yue, they tacitly adhered to some insurmountable "basic bottom lines".
For example, the left can talk about the "sunshine policy" and can also substantively promote economic and other cooperation between the North and the South, but it cannot show any intention to recognize or even acquiesce in the nuclear and missile tests of the "North"; The right can emphasize military cooperation and "shared values" between South Korea, the United States, and Japan, but it cannot relax on issues such as the Dokdo (Takeshima) sovereignty dispute, South Korea's forced labor and comfort women's compensation, and Japan's apology to South Korea for historical crimes.
Previously, whether it was Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun, Moon Jae-in on the left, or Lee Myung-bak and Park Jin-hye on the right, they all abided by this "unspoken rule", and it was precisely because of this "unspoken rule" that Lee Myung-bak, who was recognized as "both pro-American and pro-Japanese and actively advocated military cooperation among the three countries", stopped the signing of the South Korean signing at the last hour before the GSOMIA signing in 2009, and even became the first South Korean president to personally land on Dokdo (Takedo).
In contrast, Yin Xiyue, who is called "right-wing" and has actually served in the procuratorial system for a long time, has unscrupulously broken through "political conventions" in the process of promoting goodwill with Japan and the United States, and once adopted the practice of "laughing and scolding others, I do it myself" in response to complaints, criticisms and accusations from the outside world.
Not only the opposition party, the South Korean media and society reacted strongly to this approach, but even many figures in the right-wing camp or the ruling party said that it was "too much." The one who questioned Lee Jong-seop at the plenary session of the National Defense Committee was the current member of the National Assembly, who belongs to South Korea's right-wing ruling party, the National Force.
Therefore, Lee Jong-seop's statement can also be seen as a remedial strategy that Yoon Seok-yue has to "hedge" in the face of public opinion - although the defense minister's remarks are also very different from the public statements of his own subordinate, Defense Ministry spokesman Jeon Ha-kyu, on similar issues only 16 days ago.
Data map of the joint exercise of the South Korean and US forces. Photo: Xinhua News Agency
The "US-Japan-ROK military alliance" has long existed
In fact, both supporters, opponents, and "clarifiers" of the US-Japan-ROK military alliance intentionally or unwittingly avoided the fact that the alliance has always existed.
Due to Japan's defeat in World War II and military occupation by the United States, the United States and Japan signed the Security Treaty in 1951, which was replaced by a new version of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty on January 19, 1960.
The treaty stipulates that the United States has the obligation to provide military protection to Japan, and legally confirms the privileges and status of U.S. forces stationed in Japan. It can be said that the US-Japan military alliance established on the basis of this treaty is one of the military alliances with the highest "weight" of the United States after World War II.
The United States and South Korea signed the U.S.-Korea Mutual Defense Treaty on October 1, 1953, due to the outbreak of the Korean War. This treaty not only has similar provisions to the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, but also affirms the command subordination of the U.S. military over the ROK military, which has continued since the war.
Due to changes in the international and geopolitical situation, general dissatisfaction in South Korean society, and a general reluctance in the United States to "overburden foreigners," command over the ROK military was split into "peacetime command" and "wartime command" in 1994. The former was returned to South Korea that year, while the latter has undergone several twists and turns and is still in the hands of the US military.
Despite the lack of a military alliance treaty between South Korea and Japan, the military alliance between the United States and Japan and between the United States and South Korea has existed for a long time, and it is an unequal model of the United States being the sole power of the United States and the South Korean and Japanese sides "obeying orders and following commands", and the three parties have in fact become the "US-Japan-ROK military alliance" coordinated by the United States.
Moreover, because the United States has long regarded the "US-Japan-ROK triangle" as its foothold in its military strategy in the Far East, in the Korean War, which triggered the US-ROK military alliance, the Eighth Army, the main force of the US military, was originally the US occupation force in Japan, and after carrying out the mission of crossing the sea, it is still the US military institution responsible for exercising "wartime command" over the ROK army.
South Koreans hold up anti-war placards protesting a ROK-U.S. military exercise near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, March 7, 2016. Photo: Xinhua News Agency
Above it is the US Command in Korea located at the Yongsan base. And the command, like the U.S. Forces Japan at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo, Japan, is a subordinate joint command under the command of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. The predecessor of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the U.S. Pacific Command, was established as early as January 1, 1947, making it the oldest and largest of the existing U.S. joint commands.
Obviously, given that the US-Japan-ROK military alliance is not an equal military cooperative relationship, but a one-sided military cooperative relationship in which the United States dominates the other two countries, to some extent, Japan's "grace and power" to South Korea and Yoon Seok-yue's "compromise and seeking perfection" against Japan are the result of the US influence exerting both positive and negative aspects.
Under these circumstances, the military alliance between the United States, Japan, and South Korea has not only always existed objectively, but the United States has far greater military privileges than other military alliances. Although this "triangle" lacks a formal bilateral treaty between Japan and South Korea, and lacks a "superior framework treaty" signed by the United States, Japan, and South Korea at the same time, all this is actually irrelevant in the context of the United States being alone.
It can be seen from this that Lee Jong-seop or Yoon Seok-yue, who is behind him, actually played a clever word game in the face of domestic public opinion: the current South Korean government is indeed in no hurry to promote the signing of a "framework treaty of superiority" or "ROK-Japan military alliance agreement" in which the United States, South Korea, and Japan "write the same frame", because the "ROK-US-Japan military alliance" established under the premise of US military domination of South Korea and Japan has existed for half a century.
Written by / Tao Short Room (Columnist)
Editor / He Rui
Proofreading / Chen Diyan