Korea-Japan, Korea-China, Korea-US-Japan defense talks in Singapore … ‘Missile warning information’, ‘patrol plane’ likely to be discussed

National Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop will attend the 20th Asian Security Conference (the so-called Shangri-La Dialogue) held in Singapore from the 2nd to the 4th, and the defense ministers of Korea, Japan, Korea, China , and the US and Japan will have talks.

In particular, the meeting of defense ministers between the three countries is expected to discuss ways to establish a system for sharing warning information about North Korean missiles among the three countries.

The Ministry of National Defense made the announcement on the 1st, saying, “During the meeting, not only Korea-Japan and Korea-China bilateral talks and Korea-US-Japan trilateral talks, but also defense ministerial meetings with major countries such as Canada. , the Netherlands, Germany, and the EU are being held to evaluate the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, and the countries involved We intend to discuss ways to expand bilateral defense cooperation with the ROK.” The Korea-US-Japan talks are expected to take place on the morning of the 3rd, the Korea-China talks in the afternoon of the same day, and the Korea-Japan talks on the morning of the 4th.

The leaders of Korea, the United States and Japan held a trilateral summit at the G7 summit held in Hiroshima, Japan last month, and decided to upgrade security cooperation between Korea, the United States and Japan to a ‘new level’. The first step is expected to be the sharing of North Korean missile warning information in real time.

Currently, Japan participates in the Missile Defense (MD) of the United States. In other words, if a North Korean or Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) flies to Japan as well as the United States, Japanese radar detection information or direct interception assets can. intercept it. The US military has also used the ballistic missile battlefield command and control (C2BMC) system in Japan to oversee these operations.

However, since South Korea and Japan are not allies, the radar system cannot be linked directly, so the plan is to share warning information in real time through the United States, which is an alliance with both sides.

In addition to Korea, the United States and Japan, the meeting between the defense ministers of Korea and Japan, held separately, is the first in four years since the meeting between Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono in the month of November. 2019. The meeting is also expected to address the 2018 Japan Self-Defense Maritime Self-Defense Aircraft patrol aircraft threat flight, which seriously undermined the relationship of trust between the South Korean military and the Japan Self-Defense Force.

In this case, in December 2018, a Maritime Self-Defense Force P-1 patrol aircraft with torpedoes and anti-ship missiles took an attack course against a South Korean navy ship and made a threatening close flight of 180 fire control radars, and raised’ the issue. At that time, South Korea and Japan confronted each other by releasing videos taken on the website, but it was vague about revealing the radar data.

Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop, who attended a plenary meeting of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee on the 1st, said the Japanese Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) that the South Korean military is preparing to withdraw the “countermeasure guidance of Japanese patrol aircraft ” prepared after the “patrol plane clash” with Japan in 2018. He denied the report, saying it was “not true”.

An official from the Ministry of National Defense said, “There is no change in the position of the Ministry of Defense on the incident itself, and at the same time, the leaders agreed that Korea-Japan relations should be developed in a situation that focuses on the future. way.”.