South Korea, Japan reaffirm denuclearization goal, closer defense ties

South Korea and Japan on Sunday reaffirmed their commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and agreed to revive ‌joint search-and-rescue drills in a step forward for security ties between the neighboring countries.

Meeting in Seoul, South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back and his Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi agreed ‌to work on regional stability bilaterally, as well as ⁠through their partnerships with Washington, in the sixth round ⁠of talks between ⁠the two countries.

"Both ministers shared the view to continue cooperation for maintaining ‌regional peace and stability amid a grave security environment," South Korea's defense ministry ⁠said in a statement.

South Korea and ⁠Japan, with U.S. encouragement, have been working to develop closer ties since 2022 and overcome sometimes bitter historical differences, a policy continued by President Lee Jae Myung and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

In 2019, Seoul ⁠moved to end the GSOMIA intelligence-sharing pact with Japan after Tokyo ⁠restricted exports of semiconductor materials and removed ‌South Korea from its preferential trade list, over lingering grievances rooted in Japan’s past colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.

In 2025, Japan's then-Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and President Lee agreed to closer security and economic ties, and ‌the defense ministers committed to working with Washington against North Korea's nuclear threat and Pyongyang's growing military ties with Russia, including cooperation on AI and unmanned systems and annual trilateral drills.

Takaichi and Lee agreed in January 2026 to deepen shuttle diplomacy and in May expanded cooperation on energy.

On Sunday, Ahn and Koizumi also agreed to continue fostering exchange between their air ​forces' respective aerobatic teams — South Korea’s Black Eagles and Japan’s Blue Impulse — to further advance search-and-rescue exercises designed for various maritime accident scenarios.

The ‌two previously held talks in Japan in January and met again in May at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore where they discussed a possible military-logistics support agreement covering fuel, food ‌and ammunition. The two sides also agreed to hold a joint humanitarian ⁠search-and-rescue exercise in June, the ⁠first in almost a decade.

Tensions, however, ​remain, including lingering disputes over Korean women forced to work in ⁠Japanese military brothels during ‌World War II. In February, Seoul protested against a ​Japanese government event commemorating a cluster of disputed islands known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, which controls the territory.

© Thomson Reuters 2026.