‘Dangerous’ for South Korea to add Japan to defence alliance with US, presidential hopeful says
- Lee Jae-myung from the ruling party says Seoul cannot trust Tokyo as long as it continues to raise issues over historical wrongs and a disputed territory
- He also says he is opposed to any additional deployment of the THAAD missile system, viewed by China as a direct security threat
South Korea’s ruling party candidate for next year’s presidential election on Wednesday said he was not in favour of Japan joining the US and South Korea in a three-way military alliance, questioning whether Tokyo was a “trustworthy friend”.
Lee Jae-myung, of the Democratic Party, also said he was opposed to any additional deployment of the highly-sophisticated US missile defence system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD), seen by China as a direct security threat.
“Needless to say, I am opposed to a three-way military alliance including Japan,” Lee told journalists.
“Is Japan a friendly country which is always trustworthy?” he asked, noting Japan was persistent in laying territorial claims to a cluster of islets controlled by South Korea but claimed by Japan. It is known as Dokdo by Seoul and Takeshima by Tokyo.
“South Korea-US-Japan military alliance would be a very dangerous thing” as long as Japan continues raising issues with Dokdo and taking “ambiguous attitude” toward its past wrongs, Lee said.
The politician said he did not “totally” agree that THAAD in South Korea would be helpful for the country’s national interests and stability in the region and for that reason, he had opposed “in principle” its deployment in the South.
“Once deployed, however, my position is that there shouldn’t be any additional deployment of THAAD,” he said.