A real-time sharing system of North Korean missile warning information between Korea, the United States, and Japan will be operational starting in December of this year. Military training between the three countries will also be expanded starting next year.
Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara held a trilateral defense ministerial meeting on the 12th and reached this agreement. Minister Shin and Minister Austin, who visited Korea that day, attended a meeting at the Ministry of National Defense building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, and Defense Minister Kihara attended via video. This is the first time that a meeting of the defense ministers of the three countries was held independently, rather than as a multilateral event such as the Asian Security Conference (Shangri-La Dialogue).
The three ministers reviewed the progress of follow-up measures agreed upon by the leaders of Korea, the United States, and Japan at the Camp David Summit and evaluated that preparations for the operation of a real-time sharing mechanism for North Korean missile warning information have entered the final stage. Accordingly, the military reported that it was agreed to normalize the real-time sharing system in December. This is a method of connecting the Hawaii Interlocking Control Center under the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to the command and control system (C4I) of the U.S. Forces in Korea and Japan to share in real time the flight trajectories and expected landing sites of North Korean missiles captured by the South Korean military, Japanese Self-Defense Forces, and U.S. military surveillance forces. . Through this, it is expected that in the event of a North Korean missile provocation, it will be possible to detect and track more accurately by minimizing blind spots and errors from immediately after launch to final fall.
The three ministers decided to establish a multi-year trilateral training plan within the year and conduct more systematic and efficient joint training starting next year. Following the first trilateral joint air training between Korea, the United States and Japan involving B-52 strategic bombers near the Korean Peninsula last month, it is expected that more diverse and intense joint maritime and air training between the three countries will take place next year.
In addition, the three ministers strongly condemned the North Korea-Russia arms trade and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and reaffirmed their stance in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence. He also expressed strong opposition to attempts to change the status quo by force targeting China, emphasizing the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait area.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Seung-gyeom and US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Charles Brown (Air Force General) held the 48th Military Committee Meeting (MCM) at the Joint Chiefs of Staff Building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on this day to assess the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region and strengthen the combined defense posture, including responding to North Korean nuclear missile threats. Plans were discussed. A military source said, “I understand that there was a joint evaluation of trends related to provocations, such as North Korea’s relaunch of a reconnaissance satellite, and the arms trade movement between North Korea and Russia, as well as discussions on the need to suspend the effectiveness of the September 19 military agreement.”
Military reporter Sang-ho Yoon [email protected]
Source: Donga
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