Japan to work closely with U.S., S Korea to deal with N Korea

This is not news. Everyone already knows Japan will work with the US and SKorea wuith respect to NKorea. And Japan is already working with the US with respect to China.

The question we need to know is whether SKorea is willing to work with the US and Japan regarding NKorea, since Moon as made improving relations with NKorea his top priority at the expense of everything else. And SKorea refuses to join the nations willing to stand up to China's aggressive terrotorial expanion.

So we are going to stop unjustifiable sanctions, increase trade, invest in depleted infrastructure, create jobs, share technology, demilitarization, and promote tourism?

@OssanJapan

The question we need to know is whether SKorea is willing to work with the US and Japan regarding NKorea

The ROK absolutely doesn't need to work with Japan regarding NK.

Think we've heard the exact same " statement " at least a couple of times a year for the last few decades. Anything new?

So your plan? Nuclear war? Starvation?

comon guy, make a suggestion.

Japan will coordinate closely with the United States and South Korea in dealing with North Korea, with the aim of resolving the issue of Japanese abducted by the North and denuclearising the Korean Peninsula

Denuclearize the Peninsula is a laudable goal but unrealistic. The North will not give up the teeth of their defense. The issue of abducted Japanese is already as resolved as it will ever be so no need to spend more time on that issue.

Basically what needs to be found is a way to gradually bring North Korea from being the whakadoo nation it currently is to a normal country with normal relations with the world and a more normal internal working without all the brainwashing that goes on.

The ROK absolutely doesn't need to work with Japan regarding NK.

@Samit Batsu

Yeah. China is the overlord of North Korea, and South Korea has good relations with China.

Working with China can already ease any tension from the NK. This is what Biden fears the most as the US can't afford to lose Korean peninsula to China-Russia at the moment.

Think we've heard the exact same " statement " at least a couple of times a year for the last few decades. Anything new?

Japan has a habit of hyping things up, and routinely deflecting anyone's attention from looking at Japanese non-action or failures. Anyone, who criticizes Japan, will be met with tidal waves of Japanese online trolls and alt-right weebs. If worse, these critics of Japan will be intimidated by Japanese thugs from the Japanese embassy but that was the good old days before the bubble burst as Japan now can't do it anymore.

So your plan? Nuclear war? Starvation?

Opening up North Korea. Accepting it as a normal nation in the world.

Just like what the US did with Vietnam, China, and recently Cuba (before Trump ruined things). North Korea guaranteed its national sovereignty and independence through nukes, so it is necessary to accept it as a normal nation now since it doesn't have any intention to destroy the world.

The issue of abducted Japanese is already as resolved as it will ever be so no need to spend more time on that issue.

It will be easily resolved if the West accepts North Korea as a normal nation through rescinding all sanctions.

However, Japanese right-wingers deeply fear a reunited Korea to draft Japan in all aspects, so they desperately try all means to harm Korea but it doesn't work since China backs up Koreans and the US respects Koreans. Japan's world status is sadly declining due to economic malaise, technological malaise, education malaise, and all sorts of malaises.

Abe and Suga never want to resolve the kidnapping issues as their goals have always been the Japanese domination of the Korean peninsula.

South Korea is not part of Quad Alliance to balance China, is getting closer to CCP instead.

South Korea threaten GSOMIA pact, if Japan doesn't listen to Korean demands then it's over.

South Korea doesn't see Japan as important, not necessary, we can do without type of attitude, even though their only half of Korea. They are very confident Japan is not needed. Only USA is needed.

Thats why they have the attitude that you see. Willing to risk the relationship with Japan at any point, at any moment SKorea can say it's over! We are upset...again.

0 respect for Japan. 0 respect for any agreements they signed with Japan. S. Korea has benefited from their anti-Japan views.... How?

Billions paid by Japanese government towards SKorea for past mistakes.

2.Takeshima Island taken in 1954. No response from the Japanese government. Instead we pay compensation in 1965.

3.S. Korea was added to best friends list. Benefiting economically. The only Asian country to receive such previlage.

4.Keeping an old rival country (Japan), weak, apologetic, unbalanced, not prepared. Ashamed as much as possible of our country, while S. Korea is more fanatic each day with patriotism. Mandatory military service. No restrictions militarily.

South Korea is not part of Quad Alliance to balance China, is getting closer to CCP instead.

No it is not getting closer to CCP. Alliance with the US and thousands of US troops permanently stationed in South Korea.

South Korea doesn't see Japan as important, not necessary, we can do without type of attitude, even though their only half of Korea. They are very confident Japan is not needed. Only USA is needed.

Not true. Japan and South Korea have unresolved issues from the past, but for the present and future they know they need to work together to oppose China and its expansionist ways.

All three know that North Korea is unstable and backed by China who does not want a free democratic Korea unified and on it's border. If that happened there would actually be much less necessity of having a permanent US presence in Korea. But China fears this eventuality anyway.

Working together helps protect all from China's ambitions of being THE world leader and having nations defer to its will. No room for anti South Korea from Japan or anti Japan from South Korea. Deal with past issues separately from future ones.

The sheer ignorance of South Koreans who actually believe that they do not "need" Japan to defend themselves from North Korea is mind boggling.

South Korea's ability to defends itsels depends upon the United States. The largest U.S. military presence in Asia is Japan. Not only does it serve as the gateway to all U.S. operations in the region, the U.S. ability to effectively defend South Korea relies on Japan's logistics. The U.S. could not have saved South Korea in 1951 without the cooperation of Japan. The Korean War was fought between UN nations and North Korea, and to this date the UN Command sits in Yokota Airbase.

South Korea did nothing when North Korea bombed Yeonpyeong ten years ago or shot and burned a South Korean official last year.

The week Trump talked with Kim Jong Un for the first time, they cancelled their joint military drill along the border with the U.S., yet they did their regular drill on the Liancourt Rocks in case of an invasion from Japan.

A survey found that South Koreans view Kim Jong Un, a dictator executes people in public, in a more favorable light than Abe. Not to mention that almost half of South Korea would support North Korea in a war against Japan.

Actions speak louder than words, and South Korea has shown that it can't be trusted to handle North Korea by itself when it would rather side with a dictatorship over Japan.

LMFAO I always thought Japan was working closely with the U.S., and S Korea to deal with N Korea. Fooled me once fooled me twice and I am sure I will read this again.

South Korea on it's own could defeat North Korea in a conventional war, it is the nuclear weapons that gives NK any type of military advantage. The UN Command　Headquarters is at Camp Humphreys in South Korea and is headed by a U.S. Army General. The UN Command-Rear is at Yokota Japan and is headed by a Group Captain of the Royal Australian Air Force, there are a total of 7 U.S. Bases in Japan that are designated as UN facilities but they are subordinate to the UN Command in SK. There is already an agreement in place to use U.S. Military Bases in Japan to support a military conflict on the Korean Peninsula, all the U.N. Command has to do is notify the Japanese Govt. that the agreement is taking place but the agreement is the authority to use the bases and the J-Govt. cannot say nor would they dare to say no. So in case of military conflict on the Korean Peninsula, the country of Japan is important because of the U.S. Military Bases but the Government of Japan is not important.

comon guy, make a suggestion.

Well armed deterrence, the credible threat to use massive force if the other side tries to invade, and patience. That is all that the South Koreans, US and Japan can do. It's not pretty but ultimately it is bargain basement compared to the costs of open war, or the perhaps greater cost of surrendering and "unifying" under DPRKs terms. Just me but I'd rather bear the burden of a big military than surrender to the tender mercies of Kim and his clan. Deterrence done well prevents war and all the associated horrors, and preserves your freedoms.

The ROK absolutely doesn't need to work with Japan regarding NK.

Yes it does. Without the active assistance of Japan, and those big US bases on Japanese soil, South Korea is almost impossible to defend, particularly so if China becomes involved. The US, Japan and ROK need a well thought out plan on the shelf ready to go that is rehearsed annually at a minimum so everybody involved knows what to do if shooting starts and executes smoothly.

However, Japanese right-wingers deeply fear a reunited Korea

No. It is China that will never accept a unified, democratic Korea on its border, a Korea that guarantees a free press, religious freedom and that has competitive multi party elections for public office. That is China's mortal fear, equal to Taiwan declaring independence. China will go to the matt and bear any cost including their major cities nuked to oblivion to prevent that from happening.

South Korea on it's own could defeat North Korea in a conventional war, it is the nuclear weapons that gives NK any type of military advantage. 

No, China will never allow DPRK to be defeated and Korea unified under a democratically elected government with a free press, religious freedom and a western orientation. The CCP will intervene with every military asset at their disposal and gladly accept whole cities reduced to ashes from nuclear retaliation by the US (after the Chinese have nuked US cities, which they will) to prevent the DPRK from being defeated by ROK and US forces. China does not want that war and will do whatever it can to restrain Kim from initiating an invasion of ROK, but if a war does break out on the Korean peninsula the CCP will see it as a war of survival for them and behave accordingly.