ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Skip to main content

South Korea's Yoon calls for strong security co-operation with US, Japan ahead of Camp David summit

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers a speech during a ceremony to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the Korean Liberation Day from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool) South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers a speech during a ceremony to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the Korean Liberation Day from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool)
Share
SEOUL, South Korea -

South Korea's president called for deeper security co-operation with the U.S. and Japan to address North Korea's nuclear threat, saying Tuesday that his upcoming summit with the U.S. and Japanese leaders at Camp David will "set a new milestone in trilateral co-operation."

It will be the first time for the leaders of the three countries to gather specifically for a trilateral summit, rather than on the sidelines of international meetings. This suggests they are serious about boosting their ties in the midst of complex regional challenges such as North Korea's advancing nuclear arsenal and Washington's strategic rivalry with Beijing.

In their summit Friday at the U.S. presidential retreat in Maryland, President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are expected to announce plans for expanded military co-operation on ballistic missile defence and technology development, according to two senior Biden administration officials.

The summit "will set a new milestone in trilateral co-operation contributing to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific region," Yoon said in a televised speech in Seoul on Tuesday.

The speech marked the 78th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 35-year colonial rule in 1945. Past South Korean presidents commonly used Liberation Day speeches to ask Japan to make fresh apologies for its colonial actions. But Yoon, a conservative who has pushed to resolve historical grievances as a way to boost Seoul-Washington-Tokyo co-operation, instead explained why improved ties with Japan were needed.

Yoon said the seven rear bases provided to the U.S.-led U.N. Command by Japan serve as "the greatest deterrent" that keeps North Korea from invading South Korea. He said a North Korean invasion would trigger an immediate, automatic intervention by the U.N. Command and that the bases in Japan have the necessary land, sea and air capabilities.

"As partners that co-operate on security and the economy, South Korea and Japan will be able to jointly contribute to peace and prosperity across the globe while collaborating and exchanging in a future-oriented manner," Yoon said.

He said the importance of Seoul-Washington-Tokyo security co-operation is growing on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.

"In order to fundamentally block North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, the Republic of Korea, the United States and Japan must closely co-operate on reconnaissance assets and share North Korean nuclear weapon and missile data in real time," Yoon said.

When they met at the margins of a regional conference in Cambodia in November, Yoon, Biden and Kishida said they intended to share North Korea missile warning data to improve each country's ability to detect and assess the threat posed by incoming missiles. In June, their defence chiefs said they recognized efforts to activate such a data-sharing mechanism before the end of the year.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, centre left, and and his wife Kim Keon Hee, centre right, wave the national flags during a ceremony to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the Korean Liberation Day from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023. (Lee Jin-man, Pool/AP Photo)U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters after a virtual meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts ahead of the summit that the gathering is intended to mark a new era in co-operation among the three countries.

"You'll see some very concrete measures that we're taking to enhance our capacity to provide for our security in three countries, and also more broadly, security in the Indo-Pacific region," he said.

The Camp David summit is expected to anger North Korea, which has argued that U.S. moves to bolster military co-operation with South Korea and Japan are pushing it to reinforce its own military capability. North Korea views U.S.-led military drills on and near the Korean Peninsula as an invasion rehearsal.

China, which is intensely sensitive to what it perceives as other countries ganging up on it, denounced the summit.

"China opposes relevant countries forming various cliques and their practices of exacerbating confrontation and jeopardizing other countries' strategic security," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a briefing Tuesday. "We hope the countries concerned will go with the trend of the times and do something conducive to regional peace, stability and prosperity."

South Korea has maintained that its push to strengthen its alliance with the U.S. and participate in U.S.-led regional initiatives won't target China, its biggest trading partner.

Worries about North Korea's nuclear program have grown since the North openly threatened to use nuclear weapons in conflicts with its rivals and conducted about 100 missile tests since the start of last year. Many of the missiles were nuclear-capable weapons that place both South Korea and Japan within striking distance and could potentially reach the U.S. mainland. South Korea and Japan together host about 80,000 U.S. troops.

In response to North Korea's missile tests, the United States and South Korea have expanded their military drills and resumed some trilateral training involving Japan.

South Korea, the U.S. and Japan have held a trilateral leaders' meeting a total of 12 times since 1994, but all were on the sidelines of international conferences, according to South Korea's presidential office.

This week's trilateral summit comes as ties between Seoul and Tokyo have eased significantly in recent months. In March, Yoon took a major step toward resolving bilateral wrangling over colonial-era Korean forced labourers, despite vehement opposition at home by some victims and his liberal rivals. Yoon has argued that Seoul and Tokyo share challenges such as the intensifying U.S.-China competition and global supply chain problems as well as North Korea's nuclear program.

------

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.

BREAKING

BREAKING

The New Brunswick RCMP has issued an alert as officers search for an armed teenager in the Moncton and Shediac areas.

An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.