ROK playing word games on its alliance with Japan

In his response to a question on the prospects of a US-Japan-ROK military alliance at a meeting of the Republic of Korea parliament's national defense commission on Thursday, ROK National Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said that there is not such a possibility and that calling their security cooperation that was improper, according to a report of the ROK's Yonhap News Agency.

That statement puts Lee on a different position from ROK President Yoon Suk-yeol, who has been actively seeking a reconciliation with Japan on historical issues.

However, this does not mean there is a division in the Yoon government, Lee's remarks are just a remedial measure to hedge against the strong opposition the Yoon government's pro-Japan diplomacy has sparked at home — the latest poll shows about 58 percent of those surveyed in the country oppose the sharp turn the country has taken on historical issues with Japan.

At the Thursday meeting, the ROK defense chief's insistence that the General Security of Military Information Agreement, an intelligence sharing pact of the United States, Japan and the ROK that Seoul has declined to renew since 2016 until Yoon agreed to renew it in November last year immediately after he took office, is irrelevant to the trilateral military alliance, which is apparently not the case, shows his denial of the existence of a de facto security alliance with Japan has a hollow ring.

The normalization of the GSOMIA and the easing of tensions between Seoul and Tokyo will accelerate the ROK-Japan negotiation on the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, a pact the US customizes for the exchange of support between the Department of Defense and an allied nation's military, which will pave the way for the ROK to join the missile defense system the US is trying to build in the Western Pacific.

Lee's dodging of the GSOMIA discussion shows his statement in the meeting that the Yoon government has not expressed its willingness to join the US' missile defense system, and it has no reason to join it contains little sincerity and is only a failed attempt to ease the domestic pressure on the Yoon government. Commenting on the issue half a month ago, the ROK defense ministry spokesperson conveyed the Yoon government's willingness to put the ROK under the protective umbrella of the US' missile defense system.

The increasingly frequent ROK-US military drills involving the US missile systems in the ROK after Yoon took office clearly indicate the Yoon government's attitude on the issue.

Never to compromise on historical issues with Japan has long been a tacit baseline carefully observed by both the left and the right in the ROK. The right-wing Yong government's breaking of that consensus has annoyed both sides, including some of its own supporters. It is the urgency with which the Yoon government has to weather through the trust crisis at home that has forced its defense chief to put on his show.