South Korea and Japan held their first high-level security talks in more than five years Tuesday amid renewed tension over historical and territorial issues.
The so-called 2 2 talks, involving two senior foreign affairs and defense officials from each side, came as bilateral ties have been badly frayed over Tokyo’s repeated claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo and other issues stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
A key focus of attention was on how South Korea will deliver its stance on the possible revision of defense cooperation guidelines between Japan and the United States.
The allies are widely expected to revise the guidelines later this month in a way that reflects Japan’s decision to exercise its collective self-defense right.
Such a revision would allow Japan to send forces to the Korean Peninsula to help the U.S. in the event of contingencies, such as a conflict with North Korea.
South Korea and the U.S. are also allies, with more than 28,000 American troops stationed in the country to deter North Korean provocations.
“Not only in Northeast Asia, but the international situation is very fluid and the interest of our people and the international community in the revision of the U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation Guidelines and the modification of Japan’s defense and security laws is greater than ever before,” Lee Sang-deok, director-general of Northeast Asian affairs at the foreign ministry, said in his opening remarks.
“Through today’s meeting, I hope we will be able to work together to once again establish these talks as a forum for close communication between foreign affairs and defense officials of South Korea and Japan.”
The response of the Japanese side, led by Junichi Ihara, director-general of the foreign ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, was not immediately available.
The talks, which were last held in December 2009, came a week after Tokyo angered Seoul by approving new school textbooks and publishing an annual diplomatic white paper renewing its claim to Dokdo.
Seoul has urged Tokyo to revise the defense guidelines in a transparent manner and in a way that contributes to regional peace and stability. South Korea also wants Japan to seek prior approval from Seoul before Tokyo exercises its collective self-defense right on or around the Korean Peninsula.
“We will deliver our stance, and the Japanese side will explain its position,” a foreign ministry official here said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. (Yonhap)
