‘Unnecessary’: military alliance with US and Japan will deepen regional tensions, South Korea opposition chief says
- Growing geopolitical risks in the region are taking a toll on South Korea’s export-driven economy, said top opposition leader Lee Jae-myung
- Lee called for Seoul to be ‘pragmatic’ and show that an alliance with the US and strategic cooperative partnership with China are ‘not incompatible’
Lee Jae-myung also called for “pragmatic diplomacy” by Seoul, asserting that its alliance with Washington and its “strategic cooperative partnership” with Beijing were “not incompatible” given their mutual interests and robust trade ties.
“Under these circumstances, a new war on the Korean peninsula would mean the extermination of all lives,” Lee said. “A trilateral military alliance that goes beyond the current military cooperation with the US and Japan is not necessary as it would only spark an equivalent alliance including the North, China and Russia.”
Lee’s popularity has not suffered even though pro-Yoon prosecutors have accused him of corruption and abuse of power during his tenure as a provincial administrator.
North Korea says US military drills driving region to ‘brink of nuclear war’
Kim Joon-hyung, former head of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, said the US would seek to renew efforts to bolster three-way cooperation with its top Asian allies to the level of a military alliance, to curb China and Russia.
“At this time, neither the US nor South Korea is expected to utter the sensitive word – military alliance – during Yoon’s visit. But the three countries are likely to enhance their military cooperation to the level of a de facto alliance,” Kim told This Week in Asia.
“The North has midget submarines and it’s only now building a 3,000-tonne submarine to launch missiles from underwater. This means the exercise was simulating an engagement with Chinese or Russian submarines,” Kim said.
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US, South Korea conduct joint amphibious landing drills after North unveils new warheads
In addition, Japan had made it clear it will build up its missile capabilities, Kim said, including by developing hypersonic weapons, doubling its defence expenditure over the next four years and extending its military operational area beyond its own territory.
“As South Korea brings in Japan to help handle North Korea, the Yoon government is now turning China and Russia into two formidable enemies,” he said.
Lee, the opposition chief, also said that growing confrontation between the region’s opposing blocs – North Korea, China and Russia on one side and South Korea, the US and Japan on the other – was posing “fatal threats” to the South’s export-driven economy.
“As South Korea heavily relies on trade with China, its ballooning trade deficit with China is a deepening crisis for South Korea’s economy,” Lee said, urging Seoul to adopt “a flexible, pragmatic diplomacy” that prioritised its national interest.
South Korea’s bilateral trade surplus with China had hit a high of US$55.6 billion in 2018. Since then, that figure has been declining, hitting a low of US$1.2 billion last year as a result of China’s pandemic-triggered lockdowns and price increases for raw materials and intermediate products that South Korea imports for manufacturing, data from the Korea International Trade Association showed.
However, in the first two months of this year, South Korea’s accumulated trade deficit with China surged to more than US$5 billion, followed by Australia at US$4.85 billion and Japan at US$3.53 billion, according to the official figures.
“Aside from the global economic slowdown, it can’t be denied that the deepening confrontation between South Korea, the US and Japan in one bloc and North Korea, China and Russia in the other bloc is damaging the country’s economy,” Lee said.
Under these circumstances, it was “highly important” for South Korea to employ “multipronged diplomacy” by striking a balance between the two superpowers and expanding its ties with China, Russia, the European Union and Asean, he said.
