South Korea’s Navy has informed Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) that it will postpone the joint search-and-rescue drill scheduled for this month, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 17th. The exercise had been expected to resume for the first time in eight years, but Japan’s decision to protest South Korea’s flight activity over Dokdo ultimately affected the plan.
According to the report, the postponement stems from Japan’s refusal earlier this month to provide mid-air refueling support for South Korean military aircraft at an MSDF base. Japan rejected the previously arranged refueling support in protest of the South Korean Air Force’s Black Eagles aerobatic team flying over Dokdo. This amounted to Japan backing out of a military exchange it had already agreed to.
In response to Japan’s action, South Korea informed Japan that it would withhold participation in the MSDF music festival, scheduled for the 13th to 15th, by canceling the dispatch of its military band. An MSDF official told Yomiuri that “the South Korean military’s recent actions appear to reflect sensitivity toward domestic public opinion.”
The joint drill had drawn expectations as the first resumption in eight years. From 1999 to 2017, the two sides had conducted ten joint exercises to strengthen maritime search-and-rescue cooperation. However, bilateral military cooperation was suspended following the “Japanese patrol aircraft incident” in December 2018, when a Japanese P-1 maritime patrol aircraft flew at a low and threatening altitude near South Korea’s destroyer “Gwanggaeto the Great” during a search for a North Korean distressed fishing boat. Japan claimed at the time that the South Korean vessel “directed a fire-control radar” at the aircraft, but South Korea countered that “no such targeting occurred.”
Still, both governments are expected to manage the situation so that it does not derail the broader momentum toward restoring military exchange and cooperation. Since the two countries reached a difficult settlement over last year’s patrol aircraft dispute and agreed to resume and expand exchanges, neither side is expected to escalate the issue. Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said at a press conference on the 14th that South Korea’s absence from the MSDF music festival “will not create distance in the Japan-Korea relationship, and we will continue to cooperate.”
The timing of the joint drill will also be adjusted. A senior Defense Ministry official told Yomiuri that “it is important to keep communication open while allowing for a cooling-off period.” A South Korean government official added, “We hope the postponement of the joint drill will serve as a final resolution to this series of issues.”
Posted by Freewhale98
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Takaichi is so bad on this
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is now facing an escalating diplomatic crisis not only with China but also with South Korea. The long-standing Dokdo dispute, usually a dormant issue, has been pushed back into the spotlight by Takaichi’s actions.
So-called “Dokdo dispute” is an international incident which Japan continues to claim Dokdo, a Korean island in the middle of the East Sea. In response to these provocative moves against Korean territory, the South Korean military has been conducting routine annual exercises on the island. Until now, Japan’s reactions were limited to filing diplomatic protests, but under Takaichi the government is taking more tangible retaliatory steps, such as refusing refueling support for South Korean aircraft and disrupting planned military cooperation.
Her approach appears to be turning a symbolic territorial dispute into an active point of confrontation. Her unorthodox approach to neighborhood diplomacy is causing unnecessary friction in the region.
Earlier development was previously mentioned in DT. From then and onwards to this report, both sides seems to be managing the event and is not letting it to escalate into becoming a diplomatic row, for the time being. But how it will further develop from this point onward remain to be seen.