19
movement, if not about Korean concern over the textbook and the Yasukuni visit.
Military level
As recently as 1986, one obs
erver of the bilateral relationship claimed
that direct military ties between Japan and South Korea were neither
“possible nor desirable.”
49
However, t
he 1990s wi
tnessed the gradual introduction
of the two nations’ military organizations into the bilateral relationship as Korea and
Japan initiated significant military exchanges. An April 1994 defense ministerial
meeting between JDA Director Aichi Kazuo and South Korean Defense Minister Lee
Pyung-tae initiated the process. The backbone of this incremental increase in exchanges
and cooperation has been the Working-Level Defense Policy Dialogue (bilateral
consultations at the counselor-level), which have been held annually since 1994, and was
perhaps the most important result of the 1994 ministerial. Since 1998, this has been
supplemented by a higher level annual security dialogue, although no meeting was held in
2001 due to the textbook and Yasukuni disputes. Other exchanges include
military-to-military exchanges, such as educational exchanges, reciprocal visits by
warships, and even joint search-and-rescue naval exercises.
50
List 4 details major security exchanges between 1997 and 2002. In addition to
these exchanges, exchanges of students and researchers from military academies and
defense related think tanks has also been facilitated.
List 4: Major Security Exchanges 1997-2002
Item Date
Visit to ROK by JDA Director General
Jan 99, Apr 04
Visit to ROK by the bureaucratic vice-minister
Jul 98, Dec. 00
Visit to ROK by the Chairman of the SDF Joint Staff Council
Mar 00
49
Yong-Ok Park, “Korean-Japanese-American Triangle: Problems and Prospects,” Korea and World
Affairs, Winter 1986, p.759.
50
Japanese Defense Agency, Defense of Japan 2002, p. 240.
The two countries’ joint declaration, the
Japan-Republic of Korea Partnership Toward the Twenty-first Century, issued at the October 1998 Tokyo
summit between Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo and visiting President Kim Dai-jung was also an important
milestone in deepening military cooperation. On this, see Jason U. Manosevitz, “Japan and South Korea:
Security Relations Reach Adolescence,” Asian Survey 43, 5 (September/October 2003), pp. 801-25.
Convention