Japan 'counterstrike capabilities' raise constitutional questions

Japan's development of "counterstrike capabilities" would create knotty constitutional questions for South Korea and command-and-control complexities in the event of hostilities with the North...

Members of a civic group rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Monday to protest a revision in Japan's national security strategy that would give the country counterstrike capabilities. [NEWS1]

Japan's development of "counterstrike capabilities" would create knotty constitutional questions for South Korea and command-and-control complexities in the event of hostilities with the North.

The ability to strike at missile launch sites within North Korea — counterstrike capabilities — was discussed in Japan's national security strategy, the first in nine years, released Friday.

In South Korea, the document created a stir.

“It is our position that close consultations and agreements with South Korea in advance are absolutely necessary for issues that have a significant impact on the security of the Korean Peninsula and our national interest, such as the exercise of counterattack capabilities against the Korean Peninsula,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Counterattack by Japan of targets on the peninsula could potentially be seen as a hostile act by South Korea given the wording of the constitution, whereby all of the Korean peninsula is seen as sovereign territory.

“The territory of the Republic of Korea shall consist of the Korean peninsula and its adjacent islands,” reads Article 3 of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court spelled this out in a ruling in 1996.

“As long as the Constitution stipulates that the territory of the Republic of Korea is the Korean Peninsula and its adjacent islands, the Constitution of the Republic of Korea applies to the entire Korean Peninsula, including North Korea, so the North Korean region naturally becomes the territory of the Republic of Korea, and North Korean residents are generally included in the nationals of the Republic of Korea,” reads its ruling on a case related to forced labor during the 1910-45 Japanese annexation of Korea.

The two Koreas were a united country during the Japanese annexation period.

When specifically asked if Japan would consult the South Korean government before it counterstrikes North Korea, an official of the Japanese government said in a press briefing last Friday that Japan would make such decision independently.

Speaking with a group of reporters at the Foreign Press Center Japan, the official explained that any such counterstrike decision would be made “only in the most desperate and emergency situation” and that in such circumstances, it would be impossible to consult with any foreign power.

He added however that existing cooperation with the United States and South Korea on military intelligence would be utilized fully in such contingencies.

Some academics argue that this would be enough.

“In the event of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula or a crisis in the Taiwan Strait, the Indo-Pacific region will effectively act as a theater of war with Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation as the main axis,” Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, told the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday. “At such a time, whether Korea and Japan can communicate individually won’t be of great significance.”

South Korea and Japan once had a military intelligence exchange system, the General Security of Military Information Agreement (Gsomia), but the agreement hasn’t been renewed since 2019 when South Korea refused to renew it over bitter historical disputes.

Gsomia requires annual renewal.

“Until now, South Korea and the United States have been discussing various military threat scenarios involving North Korea through Oplan [Operations Plan], but such discussions have not taken place between South Korea and Japan,” Park Young-june, professor of national security at Korea National Defense University, told the JoongAng Ilbo. “In order to avoid accidental clashes, it is necessary to discuss in what areas Korea, the United States and Japan can cooperate and in what areas they cannot.”

Washington, unlike Seoul, welcomed Japan’s decision last week.

“We applaud the release of Japan’s new National Security Strategy and defense policy documents, which demonstrate Japan’s commitment to fundamentally expand, enhance and upgrade its defense capabilities,” according to a statement issued by a number of U.S. Congress members, including Gregory Meeks and Michael McCaul, on Friday.

BY ESTHER CHUNG, JEONG JIN-WOO [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]