“Resumption of exchanges with the Korean Air Force and Army and the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force and Ground Self-Defense Force”
“Korean Navy-Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force identity… Influence of patrol aircraft radar problem”
Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported on the 24th that the background to the success of the first joint air training between Korea, the United States, and Japan was “ultimately the relationship of trust built between the Korean Air Force and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and the improvement in Korea-Japan relations.”
According to a newspaper report citing officials from the three countries, the United States, the United States, took the ROK-U.S.-Japan summit held at Camp David last August as an opportunity to actively propose joint trilateral air training.
However, cautious opinions were expressed from some quarters in both Korea and Japan.
According to one Korean official, what the Korean military highly valued amidst the cautious atmosphere was Japan’s actions surrounding the ‘Red Flag Alaska’ exercise hosted by the US Air Force held in Alaska last June.
At that time, when the ROK Air Force’s F-16 fighter jet was making a round trip between Korea and Alaska, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force recognized the ROK Air Force’s passage through the Tsugaru Strait for the first time in about 10 years.
The Tsugaru Strait is international airspace. However, because the airspace is very narrow, there is a high possibility that it will invade Japanese airspace when passing through. Accordingly, Japan did not, in principle, acknowledge the passage of foreign fighter jets other than its ally, the United States.
For this reason, the Korean military has been transiting through the Pacific Ocean when traveling to and from Alaska. It takes 13 hours just one way. The burden on the pilot was great. Time could be shortened by passing through the Tsugaru Strait.
Additionally, according to the newspaper, there was an incident in which the Korean Air Force temporarily violated Japanese airspace in the Pacific during training in the fall of 2018. At the time, when the Japanese side notified of the invasion, the Korean side immediately apologized, saying, “(The pilot) made a piloting mistake due to fatigue,” and the incident ended without turning into a political issue.
The newspaper also introduced that the Korean Air Force and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force have made efforts to prevent confusion by establishing hotlines at the Central Air Defense Control Center in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, and the Air Defense Command Center in Kasuga, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan in 1997.
However, the newspaper pointed out that while the ROK Air Force and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, and the ROK Army and the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force are resuming exchanges, exchanges between the ROK Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force are stagnant. One official told the newspaper that it was an effect of the Korea-Japan radar patrol plane incident that occurred in 2018.
Previously, on the 22nd, for the first time in history, the air forces of Korea, the United States, and Japan conducted a trilateral joint air exercise in the skies near the Korean Peninsula. It is known that it was carried out in the overlapping area of the Korea-Japan Air Defense Identification Zone in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula.
Although the ROK-U.S. Air Forces and the U.S.-Japanese Air Forces have each conducted joint training in the skies over or near the Korean Peninsula, this is the first time that the air forces of the ROK, US, and Japan have conducted air training together.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.