Korea concerned about U.S. stance on Japan‘s military move

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- As it broadens its alliance with Japan, the United States should nonetheless consider the growing anxiety among neighboring nations over Tokyo’s apparent flexing of its military muscles, officials here said Thursday.
Washington‘s push for strengthening bilateral and trilateral alliances with Seoul and Tokyo is no news. But unnerving South Korea and China is the conservative Japanese administration’s stated goal of expanding the role of its self-defense forces.
At a rare gathering of the foreign and defense ministers of the two sides in Tokyo this week, the U.S. formally welcomed Japan‘s efforts to play a bigger role in regional security and stability, including a controversial pursuit of exercising the right to “collective self-defense.”
It would allow Japan to launch a counterattack if an ally is attacked by a foreign nation.
Asked to specify its position on the matter, the U.S. State Department emphasized the importance of the alliance with Japan, “which forms the cornerstone of our engagement in the Asia-Pacific, and to a secure and stable region.”
“It is up to the Japanese people and government to determine Japan’s capabilities,” a department official told Yonhap News Agency, saying it‘s Washington’s formal position on the matter.
South Korean officials are apparently reluctant to speak in public about Washington‘s approach toward Tokyo’s move to expand its military role.
“It is true that basically, the U.S. is not opposed to Japan‘s move. But the U.S. is expected to make efforts to minimize conflict between Japan and its neighboring nations such as South Korea and China in the long-term process of handling the matter,” a South Korean diplomat said, requesting anonymity.
He pointed out that Japan is bracing for long internal debates over the collective self-defense issue.
Experts also say the Obama administration should be more careful in balancing its alliance with Japan and that with South Korea.
“Although the ROK (South Korea)-U.S. and Japan-U.S. alliances are really apples and oranges, the ROK compares the two and is worried about the apparent leaning of the U.S. toward Japan over Korea,” said David Maxwell, associate director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University.
He said Koreans view the rise of the Japanese military and expansion of its scope under the guise of collective self-defense with suspicion.
“The U.S. has to walk a tightrope between the two while hoping that it can be a bridge,” he said on his blog. “But given the current domestic political situations in both the ROK and Japan it is going to be difficult for the U.S. to bridge not the gap but the wide gulf between the two.”