South Korea is in talks with Japan to resume the regular working-level dialogue channel between the countries’ defense ministries, which was suspended last year amid worsening history disputes, diplomatic sources said Thursday.
“Both countries are in discussion with an aim to hold regular directorial working-level talks between the South Korean and Japanese defense ministries in early August as far as I know,” one of the diplomatic sources noted.
Referring to the agenda items of the expected meeting, another diplomatic source said, “It seems that current bilateral defense issues will be dealt with there, including Japan’s moves to reconfigure national security laws and the assessment of the security situation of the Korean Peninsula.”
If convened as planned, it will be the first gathering of the regular working-level consultation channel between the two defense ministries in nearly two years. The meeting was not held last year as the neighbors ratcheted up diplomatic tensions over a dispute stemming from Japan’s colonial-era sexual enslavement of Korean women.
It will also delve into the push for rearmament by the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which comes on the heels of the passage of a handful of bills intended to strengthen Japan’s military power through the country’s lower chamber last week.
South Korea plans to ask for a detailed explanation of the passed bills when the defense talks convene, another government source said.
“We will reassert our firm stance that any (Japanese) actions will not be condoned without a prior agreement from us if they are something that can affect the security of the Korean Peninsula or South Korea’s national interest,” the source said.
Japan’s ongoing rearmament moves, especially one intended to empower its self-defense forces to operate outside of the country, have stoked security concerns that Japanese forces allied with the U.S. could land on the peninsula for an unwanted military mission.
Despite the overture, the countries are expected to fall short of restoring the suspended defense ministers’ talks at least for this year as bilateral tensions still run high over history disputes, including one on Japan’s territorial claim to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, sources noted. (Yonhap)
