SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s defence ministry said on Tuesday it would work with Japan to enhance security cooperation after Seoul’s proposal to compensate people forced to work under Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation.
South Korea said on Monday that its companies would compensate such victims of forced labour, seeking to end a dispute that has undercut U.S.-led efforts to present a unified front against China and North Korea.
“The defence ministry will also review strengthening South Korea-Japan and South Korea-U.S. security cooperation,” a ministry spokesperson told a regular press briefing.
He said a dispute over a South Korean destroyer’s alleged radar lock on a Japanese patrol plane in 2018 was not related to the forced labour issue, and that the ministry’s stance remained unchanged.
Japan has said a South Korean warship had locked its targeting radar on a Japanese aircraft, strongly protesting the action as “extremely dangerous.” Seoul has said the vessel was performing routine operations.
The alleged radar incident was one of a list of issues that has clouded the neighbours’ relations, which plunged to their lowest point in decades after South Korea’s Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Japanese firms to pay reparations to former forced labourers.
Japan’s Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said cooperation with South Korea and the United States is becoming “increasingly important” in the face of North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats.
“Although there are currently various issues between the defence authorities of Japan and South Korea, the Ministry of Defense and the Self-Defense Forces intend to maintain close communication with the South Korean side for the sake of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, including the response to North Korea,” Hamada said.
North Korea on Monday lashed out at joint military drills by the United States and South Korea, saying any move to shoot down one of its test missiles would be considered a “declaration of war.”
(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi in Seoul and Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo; Editing by Kim Coghill and Gerry Doyle)
