South Korea and Japan are looking for enhanced military

Attention is focused on whether the two ministers will produce tangible results in two proposed pacts ― one for sharing military intelligence and the other for sharing non-arms supplies and services such as <summer fashion 2011 food, fuel and transportation. There has been a growing need for collaboration between the two neighbors since the North’s sinking of a South Korean warship last March and its artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island near the West Sea border in November.

Now, it’s hard to downplay such a need. However, the Seoul government must take a cautious approach. First, it should not turn a blind eye to public sentiment against Japan for its brutal colonial rule. Needless to say, South Koreans don’t want to revive the specter of Japan’s past imperialism and militarism.

It is no secret that Washington wants to form a trilateral alliance with South Korea and Japan in a bid to keep an increasingly assertive China in check. Of course, it will take a long time to see such an initiative become a reality because it won’t be easy to forge a military alliance between South Korea and Japan. On Tuesday, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that the two countries are preparing a joint declaration calling for closer military cooperation ahead of President Lee Myung-bak’s visit to the island nation in the first half this year. power balance

Seoul denied the report, but speculation is growing that something is going on between the two sides to promote bilateral collaboration in the military field. South Korea and Japan must make efforts to meet some preconditions for boosting military relations.

Most of all, the two nations should build up mutual trust and friendship by pulling out all the stops to overcome the legacy of the shameful modern history. Military collaboration will not be of much help if Japan keeps glossing over its past atrocities and laying claim to Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, while refusing to apologize for “comfort women.”

Policymakers of the two countries should be careful not to trigger a race for military buildup and regional hegemony in Asia. Cementing a South Korea-Japan military bond and creating a trilateral alliance with the U.S. may reignite a new Cold War confrontation with North Korea, China and Russia.
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