Defense chiefs of South Korea, U.S., Japan sign document formalizing trilateral security cooperation

The defense chiefs of South Korea, the United States and Japan signed a document on the Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework on Sunday, Seoul's Defense Ministry said.

From left, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara pose for a photo after signing a memorandum of cooperation on the Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework in Tokyo on Sunday. [YONHAP]

The defense chiefs of South Korea, the United States and Japan signed a document on the Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework on Sunday, Seoul's Defense Ministry said, in a move solidifying their continued commitment to three-way security cooperation against North Korean threats.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Minoru Kihara, respectively, inked a Memorandum of Cooperation on the framework in Tokyo amid their deepening security cooperation in response to the North's persistent nuclear and missile threats and growing military alignment with Russia.

As the first document that institutionalizes joint efforts for trilateral security cooperation among defense authorities, it provides the direction and policy principle for areas of high-level policy consultations, information sharing and trilateral drills, according to the Defense Ministry.

"Accordingly, the ministers of the three nations reaffirmed the unwavering nature of the new era of trilateral cooperation," it said in a joint press statement.

A ministry official said the document is meant to ensure the conditions for trilateral security cooperation are continuously pursued amid a fluid international security environment.

Under the agreement, the three nations are expected to step up cooperation for the effective operation of their real-time sharing of North Korean missile data and regularly carry out joint drills, including the multidomain Freedom Edge exercise, based on a multiyear plan.

The document's signing came after South Korea proposed drawing up a joint document during a trilateral security meeting in February, followed by a meeting of the defense chiefs on the sidelines of the Shangri-la Dialogue in June where they agreed on inking the document within this year.

In what marked their first-ever gathering in Tokyo, the three defense chiefs also voiced concerns over growing military and economic cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, emboldened by the signing of the "comprehensive strategic partnership" treaty that includes a mutual defense clause.

They also denounced the North's diversification of nuclear delivery systems and test launches of multiple ballistic missiles, as well as other tension-escalating acts on the Korean Peninsula.

The defense chiefs plan to meet in Seoul next year for their trilateral ministerial meeting.

Yonhap