As North Koreans and Chinese receive ultimatum, US looks to accelerate defense partnerships with Asian allies

GIMHE AIR BASE, South Korea (AP) — The United States on Saturday completed its first multidomain exercise with Japan and South Korea within the East China Sea, a move Washington aims to improve and lock down its security partnership with key Asian allies. It is a step forward in our efforts. Facing increasing ultimatum from North Korea and China.

The 3-day Self-Government Edge enhanced the sophistication of previous exercises with air and naval exercises conducted simultaneously, with the aim of improving joint ballistic-missile defence, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and alternative capabilities and facilities.

The exercises, which are expected to increase in future years, were also aimed at strengthening the countries’ abilities to share missile ultimatums – something that has become increasingly noticeable as North Korea assesses more sophisticated strategies. .

Outside of Australia, Japan and South Korea are the only US partners whose forces have made great efforts to coordinate operations with the US, so that if, for example, South Korea were to find a target, it could immediately engage. Only he could play the main role. So Eastern or US reverse numbers can only provide the answer, said Ridzwan Rahmat, a Singapore-based analyst at security agency Jane’s.

“This is the kind of interoperability that is involved in a typical war scenario,” Rahmat said. “The intention of such trilateral exercises is to develop interoperability among the three armed forces so that they can fight better as a cohesive fighting force.”

Such exercises also run the risk of escalating tensions, with China often condemning exercises in what it considers its sphere of influence, and North Korea already anticipating the arrival of the US Theodore Roosevelt supply contingent in the port of Busan. Is condemned – which is home to South Korea’s military headquarters. And its Gimhae Breeze Bottom – In Preparation for the Self-Government Age is “provocative” and “nasty”.

On Wednesday, a day after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the Roosevelt in Busan, becoming the first sitting South Korean president to board a U.S. aircraft carrier since 1994, North Korea test-fired a multiwarhead missile that That was the first known launch. Developmental weapons, if confirmed.

South Korea’s military said a joint analysis by South Korean and US officials showed that the North Korean missile launch failed.

Defense cooperation involving both Japan and South Korea is politically complex for both Yun and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, due to resentment over Imperial Japan’s brutal occupation of Korea before and during World War II.

Both countries have the largest militaries among US allies in East Asia – and they host about 80,000 US troops in their territories – but the US has been reluctant to work with them individually rather than because of their history of working together. Has a tendency.

Kishida’s increased defense spending and cooperation with South Korea have been generally well accepted by the Japanese public, but have led to disagreements with the right wing of his own party, while Yun’s domestic appeal has weakened. But he has continued the course.

“South Korea’s transformation under the Yoon administration toward improving its relations with Japan has been extremely significant,” said Heigo Sato, a security expert and professor of international politics at Takushoku University in Tokyo.

Both leaders are seen trying to strengthen their defense ties with Washington ahead of the inauguration of the new president, with South Korean officials recently saying they were expected to reach a formal security framework agreement with the US and Japan this year. Expected to sign that will be locked. A joint approach to respond to a possible attack by North Korea.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has also long been working to increase cooperation between South Korea and Japan – something that many did not think possible at the start of his presidency, said Yuan, a defense analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Graham said.

“Credit goes where it’s due – the fact that it’s happening is a significant achievement of the administration’s regional policy,” he said.

former us President Donald Trump He caused friction with both allies during his tenure at the administrative center through higher costs for hosting his website featuring US troops holding one-on-one meetings with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Graham said that under Biden, Washington is trying to strengthen its system of alliances with more and more sophisticated exercises and diplomatic contracts.

“This is clearly an effort by the US to strengthen its alliances as positively as possible, given not only the challenge from its adversaries, but also the uncertainty around a second Trump administration,” he said. “They’re trying to institutionalize as many of these habits of collaboration as long as possible.”

Tensions with North Korea are at their lowest level in years, with Kim Jong Un’s gun-toting tactics intensifying despite heavy global sanctions.

In the meantime, China has built up a vast army of nuclear and conventional artillery, and now has the world’s largest army. It claims every self-ruled island of Taiwan and much of the South China Sea as its private territory, and its military has increasingly joined forces to press those claims.

China and North Korea have also been among Russia’s closest allies in the war against Ukraine, old Russia and China are also key allies of North Korea, as well as Myanmar’s military leaders who seized power in 2021 and have consistently tightened Taking a stance. Resistance in that country’s civil war.

Meanwhile in Pyongyang, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim signed a mutual security agreement, agreeing to return to help the other side in the event of an attack.

Despite better diversity of ships overall, China still has only 3 aircraft carriers compared to the US fleet’s 11 – one of the most effective tools a country has for delivering large amounts of energy to a good distance from space. Is one of.

China’s strength, on the other hand, is that its main concern is the internal waters of the Indo-Pacific, while the center of Washington’s global attention is its largely dispersed naval assets. After exercises in the East China Sea with Japan and South Korea, Roosevelt is scheduled to sail to the Center East to provide protection to ships against attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

This has made strong security partnerships all the more notable, not just with Japan and South Korea but with Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan and others in the patch, and fostering these has been a concern for the Biden leadership.

“One of the weaknesses of the Chinese Navy, despite the number of hulls they have compared to the Americans, is the fact that they do not have a network of favorable ports from which they can operate in the event that they need to launch yes.” Campaign,” Rahmat said.

“One of the strengths of the US Navy is not just its ships and its technology, but its ability to call on a vast network of friendly ports and, aware of this strength, they are doubling down on it by enhancing partnerships throughout the region ”

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AP essayist Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this story from Tokyo.