Courcy’s Intelligence Brief

In our 19 February issue we noted that South Korea is being much more careful in its relations with China than Japan is, in part because its exports to China are nearly 40% greater than its combined exports to Japan and the US.  Territorial disputes between South Korea and China have led to nothing like the same level of confrontation as those between Japan and China, and China is also careful of its relationship with Seoul because it sees South Korea as a potential brake on any attempt to turn the US’s regional alliance system into a ‘contain China’ axis.  The curiosity is that Japan has done so little to counter this by improving its own ties with South Korea.  This week it has indicated a desire to improve relations with Seoul, but the effort seems half-hearted.

At the beginning of the week, on 17 February, Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki held talks with South Korea’s Ambassador to Japan, Lee Byung-kee, on ways to improve bilateral relations.  The next day, on 18 February, the director-general of the Japanese foreign ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, Junichi Ihara, met with his South Korean counterpart Lee Sang-deok in Seoul.  It was the first meeting between this level of officials from the two countries since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s controversial visit to the Yasukuni Shrine to Japan’s war dead in December.  And then, on 19 February, Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida called for a meeting with South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung Se.

Kishida said: “I would like to realize a foreign ministerial meeting as a way of fostering mutual understanding.  South Korea is an important neighbouring country and trilateral cooperation among Japan, the United States, and South Korea will be significant in view of situations surrounding North Korea.”  However, the underlying tension remains.  After the 18 February meeting between officials, a South Korean foreign ministry spokesman denounced the upcoming Takeshima Day in Japan, to be held on 22 February.  This refers to the disputed Dokdo/Takeshima Islands, which are currently under South Korean control.  Japan’s response to criticism has been blunt, with Ichita Yamamoto, Japan’s minister for territorial affairs, saying that the event was no other nation’s business.  Not surprisingly Seoul doesn’t see it that way, particularly as a cabinet minister is set to attend.  A foreign ministry spokesman said: “Hosting a ceremony over another country’s territory and even sending a government official to that constitutes an unpardonable action.”

Japan was also mentioned critically in an annual policy report from South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, which said that South Korea intended to reintroduce seals to the Dokdo islands.  It added: “Unlike Japan, which even takes control of submerged rocks by constructing various facilities, our control of outermost islands has been somewhat inadequate…”

NOTE: On 17 February, China expressed its opposition to Japan allowing the US to station nuclear weapons on its soil.  China’s foreign ministry said that Japan should stick to its three non-nuclear principles of not producing or possessing nuclear weapons or allowing them into its territory.  On 14 February, Foreign Minister Kishida had suggested that Japan might allow the US to bring nuclear weapons into the country in the event of an emergency.