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Seong Hyeon Choi

If South Korea and Japan sign a military logistics support agreement, their ties with the US would deepen as they act in concert to deter China and North Korea, analysts said.
However, they noted that several “hurdles” must be cleared before the deal could be sealed, including domestic opposition in South Korea to expanding security ties with Japan due to concerns it could sour relations with China, as well as unease stemming from Tokyo’s wartime history.
During the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Sunday, South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-baek said he had discussed the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (Acsa) during a meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Shinjiro Koizumi.
“As this is a matter that requires understanding and persuasion from the peoples of both countries, we still believe that we should remain cautious,” Ahn said.
The Acsa would simplify the exchange of military supplies – such as ammunition, fuel and food – during emergencies or joint operations between signatory countries.
Ahn’s comments were the first time that a senior South Korean defence official has acknowledged that the two sides were discussing the Acsa. In 2012, the countries began talks on the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) and the Acsa, but both were put on ice due to opposition in South Korea.
While Tokyo and Seoul signed the GSOMIA in 2016, the Acsa talks remained stalled until recently.
The renewed efforts to complete the Acsa come as the two governments work to deepen their diplomatic and defence ties amid rising regional tensions and rapid military build-ups by Beijing and Pyongyang.
During their meeting at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Ahn and Koizumi also agreed to hold a joint search-and-rescue exercise this month, after a nine-year pause.
Patrick Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based think tank Hudson Institute, said that despite a few limits or downsides, Ahn and Koizumi were “pushing as far and as fast” as they could to deepen bilateral ties.
“Japan and Korea have shared interests and approaches to protecting their national interests and preserving strategic autonomy,” he said. “To ensure they retain a strong alliance with the US, each is assuming greater burdens and building up their own capabilities.”
The two countries’ defence ties were severed in 2018 after a pair of military disputes. In October of that year, Seoul objected to a Japanese Self-Defence Force vessel flying the Rising Sun flag during a fleet review. That December, Tokyo accused a South Korean naval destroyer of locking its fire-control radar onto a Japanese maritime patrol plane in Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

Despite the lingering tensions, Japan has been looking to strengthen defence ties with South Korea, along with the US, since Tokyo’s relations soured with Beijing late last year, when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested her country might deploy military forces in a Taiwan contingency.
Beijing views Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US and its allies, do not recognise self-governed Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any forcible change to the status quo and is legally bound to supply Taipei with weapons.
During the Shangri-La Dialogue, Koizumi said it was important for Japan and South Korea to take a “proactive role in promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, including by strengthening deterrence through the US-Japan and US-South Korea alliances and other strategic coordination”.
Still, Seoul has been cautious about expanding defence ties with Tokyo.
Choi Eun-mi, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said that while the discussions about signing the Acsa at the defence ministerial level suggested security cooperation was being upgraded, the barriers remained high.
She said there was still a “psychological hurdle” in South Korea when it came to military cooperation with Tokyo stemming from Japan’s wartime atrocities.
“While there is certainly an understanding that we must cooperate with Japan and maintain good relations, there is still psychological resistance within South Korea regarding whether we can trust Japan for security purposes.”
Kang Jun-young, a professor of Chinese studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, said that Tokyo’s attempt to sign the Acsa was part of its efforts to solidify the trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington by taking a “more proactive stance towards South Korea”.
He said that as the US pushed for more defence burden-sharing from its allies and Takaichi’s cabinet attempted to expand the scope of Tokyo’s military activities, the Acsa could be used to support troops deployed in contingencies on both the Korean peninsula and in the Taiwan Strait.
“Since Takaichi has stated that a contingency in Taiwan is a contingency for Japan, plans for joint operations [with the US] are already in place. On top of that, Japan is continuing to militarise the Nansei Islands to counter China,” Kang said, referring to the Ryukyu archipelago, which includes Okinawa.
“If South Korea joins this effort, the US will see a trilateral integration system formed to some extent. Therefore … Japan can increase its military influence, and the US can reduce costs through this trilateral alliance.”
However, Kang noted that there were still “quite a few hurdles to overcome”, given that South Korea’s security priority was deterring North Korea’s nuclear weapon development. He added that Seoul also must take into account its relations with China.
The Acsa would also provide an institutional basis for the Japanese Self-Defence Forces to enter the Korean peninsula – a move contrary to South Korean public sentiment as wartime victims of Japanese occupation, he added.
“China will likely be quite wary. They view trilateral cooperation as fundamentally targeting their own interests. Naturally, they continue to harbour concerns that this cooperation might evolve into a military alliance,” Kang said.
“If a deal is actually concluded, South Korea-China relations will inevitably face significant difficulties. We can cautiously predict that pressure even greater than that over THAAD could arise,” he said, referring to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system – the US anti-missile system whose deployment on the Korean peninsula in 2016 angered Beijing.


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Northeast Asian neighbours signal closer security ties, but wartime history and Seoul-Beijing relations could stand in the way, analysts say


Northeast Asian neighbours signal closer security ties, but wartime history and Seoul-Beijing relations could stand in the way, analysts say.


South Korea and Japan eye military logistics pact. Should China be wary?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Northeast Asian neighbours signal closer security ties, but wartime history and Seoul-Beijing relations could stand in the way, analysts say

Northeast Asian neighbours signal closer security ties, but wartime history and Seoul-Beijing relations could stand in the way, analysts say