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16 January 2011 By Rick Rozoff During the preceding week the U.S.'s top military
officer identified Asia as the central focus of the
Pentagon's attention in the world, U.S. warships
joined Japanese counterparts in military maneuvers in
the East China Sea for the second time in a month, and
Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in East Asia on
a trip that began in China and will end in Japan and
South Korea on January 14. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with
Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara at the State
Department on January 6 after summoning him and South
Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan to Foggy Bottom
a month earlier and holding a joint press conference
with Maehara in Hawaii in late October. Following the
last-named event, Clinton toured the Joint Base Pearl
Harbor-Hickam and met with Admiral Robert Willard,
head of U.S. Pacific Command, before embarking on a
trip to the Asia-Pacific region that took her to
Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea,
New Zealand and Australia from October 27 to November
8. In the last two countries she renewed, strengthened
and expanded military ties with her hosts. [1] Clinton's meetings with her Japanese and South
Korean opposite numbers, dealing in large part as they
did with the conflict on the Korean Peninsula,
intentionally – indeed brazenly – circumvented the
six-party talks format which also includes North
Korea, China and Russia. On October 27 she assured the
Japanese foreign minister the U.S. viewed the
Chinese-Japanese dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu island
chain as covered by the Article 5 military assistance
clause of the 1960 U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual
Cooperation and Security, and five days later her
spokesman Philip Crowley referred to Russia's South
Kuril Islands as the Northern Territories, the term
used by Japan, which lays claims to them. [2] During the recent Clinton-Maehara meeting, the
participants "agreed to boost security cooperation"
and announced that "the goals for cooperation will be
revealed during Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's
visit to the U.S. in spring." [3] Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral
Michael Mullen visited the capitals of South Korea and
Japan on December 8 and 9 where he campaigned for both
a tighter and deeper trilateral military partnership
with his hosts and the forging of a Japanese-South
Korean defense alliance. He advocated that South Korea
and Japan accelerate that cooperation without being
"hung up on what's happened in the past," a reference
to the hundredth anniversary of Japan's post-invasion
annexation of Korea in 1910. He also "proposed joint
military drills among South Korea, Japan and the U.S…."
[4] At the beginning of this month the Japanese foreign
minister affirmed his nation's commitment to forming
the first military links between Japan and South
Korea, stating: "We hope to conclude an alliance with
South Korea to ensure security." [5] At the same time an official at the South Korean
Defense Ministry confirmed Maehara's assertion in
revealing that Seoul and Tokyo intend to sign a
defense agreement. "The pact, if signed, will open a
new chapter in the development of military relations
between South Korea and Japan," he stated. The South Korean news source from which the above
is extracted added that "the U.S. has been urging the
two neighbors to build a stronger military
relationship." [6] On January 10 the defense ministers of Japan and
South Korea, Toshimi Kitazawa and Kim Kwan-jin, met in
the South Korean capital to plan "future-oriented"
joint military relations and to "start discussing two
pacts designed to facilitate their ties." [7] The defense chiefs signed a General Security of
Military Information Agreement and an Acquisition and
Cross-Servicing Agreement, the first providing for the
pooling of intelligence and the second for exchanging
military supplies for so-called peacekeeping missions
– which is how Japanese and South Korean troop
deployments to Iraq after 2003 and military assistance
for the war in Afghanistan (troops from South Korea
and ships from Japan) have been characterized – and
military exercises. The efforts of Admiral Mullen, Secretary of State
Clinton and Secretary of Defense Gates have borne
fruit. The U.S. has led almost monthly naval war games in
East Asia since late last July, when Mullen, Clinton
and Gates visited South Korea for the sixtieth
anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War, with
the last two traveling to the Demilitarized Zone
separating the two Koreas. The USS George Washington nuclear-powered
supercarrier and its assigned carrier and
expeditionary strike groups have participated in
exercises in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), South China
Sea, Yellow Sea and East Sea in that interim. The Yellow Sea is bordered on the north and west by
China, which maintains a 300-mile exclusive economic
zone off its coasts there, and the Sea of Japan is
abutted by the Russian port city of Vladivostok and
reaches to oil-rich Sakhalin island, the southern part
of which Japan owned until the end of the Second World
War. Last month the U.S. and Japan conducted the latest
Keen Sword naval exercise in the East China Sea, which
encompasses the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. It
was the largest U.S.-Japanese joint military operation
ever held, with 44,000 troops, 400 aircraft and over
60 ships, including USS George Washington. It also
(deliberately) corresponded with the half-century
anniversary of the U.S.-Japan mutual defense treaty.
On January 10 the two nations reprised the drills
on a more modest scale, with the nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the destroyers
USS Gridley and USS Stockdale joining the Japanese
destroyer JS Kurama and helicopters from both nations
in naval maneuvers in the East China Sea. The three
American warships, joined by the guided missile
cruiser USS Bunker Hill, then headed for South Korea.
Vinson and Bunker Hill visited Busan, where last
October the guided missile destroyer USS Lassen
participated in the first Proliferation Security
Initiative [8] exercise hosted by South Korea. In all
ten warships and fourteen nations – including
Australia, Canada, France and Italy – participated in
what was codenamed Eastern Endeavour 2010. Since the sinking of the Korean corvette Cheonan last
March and President Obama's upbraiding of Chinese
President Hu Jintao over the incident three months
later [9], the official rationale for regular U.S. war
games in East Asia have been the actions of North
Korea. But the deployment of an Aegis class warship
capable of launching Standard Missile-3 anti-ballistic
missiles – USS Lassen – off the coast of South Korea
in a drill nominally aimed at monitoring the
"trafficking of weapons of mass destruction" and the
dispatching of one of the U.S.'s eleven nuclear
supercarriers to the East and South China Seas have
nothing to do with putative threats from Pyongyang. Confirmation of that fact recently appeared in an
unlikely location. The official armed forces
publication Stars and Stripes ran a feature on January
11 entitled "China real reason for South Korea, Japan
military pact?" Referring to the preliminary military agreements
reached by Japan and South Korea the day before, the
newspaper stated that "The top two U.S. allies in Asia
are inching toward greater military cooperation," in
"an incremental but important development in Asian
defense cooperation with an eye toward China." It quoted Denny Roy of the East-West Center, a
think tank established by the U.S. Congress in 1960,
as asserting: "South Korea-Japan (military)
cooperation has more implications for China than the
Korean peninsula. North Korea provides the political
excuse for what would otherwise be a strategic move"
against China. "It's a fig leaf." The Stars and Stripes article added: "Should
conflict erupt on the Korean peninsula, Japan would
likely play a crucial role in U.S. and South Korean
combat efforts, experts said. "South Korea and Japan sent observers to
participate in each other's military exercises with
the U.S. last year, a development viewed as an
important step toward deeper military cooperation."
[10] Japan deployed military observers to the U.S.-South
Korea Invincible Spirit war games in the Sea of Japan
in July and South Korea returned the favor during the
Keen Sword 2011 exercise in the East China Sea in
December. The South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh also reflected
on the groundbreaking Japanese-South Korean military
agreements signed on January 10, warning: "A military pact between South Korea and Japan is
problematic first and foremost because it legitimizes
Japanese military expansion. Tokyo has been striving
for some time to broaden the range of activity for the
JSDF [Japan Self-Defense Forces]. In 1999, it enacted
the Surrounding Situation Act, and has recently been
mulling over an amendment of the law in connection
with collective self-defense rights. The attempt to
form a military pact with South Korea is part of this
current. For example, the proposed agreement on
munitions support would allow the two countries' armed
forces to loan out food, water, and fuel during times
of emergency. Naturally, this would bolster the
expansion of the range of JSDF activity. "Moreover, Japan has recently been inquiring about
dispatching forces to the Korean Peninsula in a time
of emergency. Some time ago, Prime Minister Naoto Kan
raised the possibility of the JSDF operating in North
Korea and South Korea, on the pretext of rescuing
Japanese refugees and abduction victims. At this
point, our country should have grilled Japan on its
true intentions at yesterday's talks and strongly
demanded that the misguided notion be withdrawn. "There are also major concerns that military
cooperation between South Korea and Japan will further
develop the New Cold War structure taking shape in
Northeast Asia. To date, the United States has been in
the middle urging stronger military cooperation
between Seoul and Tokyo, and Japan has actively
welcomed this. The reason for this is that the
strategic interests of those two countries coincide in
their intent to curb Beijing." The paper's editorial also penetratingly remarked
on the consequences of the U.S.-Japan-South Korea
military axis arrogantly excluding the other three
members of the six-party format: "It is not at all a desirable outcome for [South
Korea] if military cooperation with the United States
and Japan leads to stronger military cooperation among
North Korea, China, and Russia and the Korean
Peninsula becomes a stage for confrontation between
these two sets of forces." [11] Confrontation – armed conflict and in the worst
case war – is precisely what is being prepared for and
which may be precipitated by Washington's
consolidation of the tripartite military alliance. The National Defense Program Guidelines for 2011
adopted by the Japanese Ministry of Defense last month
identified its major regional concerns as follows: "North Korea's nuclear and missile issues are
immediate and grave destabilizing factors to the
regional security. "Military modernization by China and its
insufficient transparency are of concern for the
regional and global community. "Russia's military activities are increasingly
robust." [12] According to the Japanese press, Tokyo's new
military strategy has shifted to "a posture that can
effectively deal with possible contingencies on
Japan's vulnerable southern islands and China's
growing military presence." [13] An appendix to the guidelines details plans to
increase the nation's submarines from 16 to 22,
acquire next-generation fighter jets and add to the
number of Aegis class destroyers equipped with
Standard Missile-3 interceptor missiles from the
present four. [14] (South Korea has recently awarded a
contract to Lockheed Martin to outfit another of its
warships with Aegis missile defense technology. The
third such destroyer is to be sea-ready next month.)
Japan will then equip all its six Aegis destroyers
with Standard Missile-3 interceptors, and "Patriot
Advanced Capability-3 interceptor missiles will be
deployed at air bases nationwide," [15] including
those at Aibano, Ashiya, Gifu, Hakusan, Hamamatsu,
Iruma, Kasuga, Kasumigaura, Narashino, Takaradai,
Takeyama and Tsuiki. The U.S. already maintains a Patriot battery at the
Kadena Air Base on Okinawa. In the meeting between Secretary Clinton and
Foreign Minister Maehara earlier this month, the two
sides "agreed to establish new common strategic goals
for the Asia-Pacific region and other parts of the
world." They also concurred that "the six-party talks on
North Korea's denuclearization and bilateral talks
between Washington and Pyongyang can resume only if
the North stops its provocative actions and takes
concrete steps to abandon its nuclear program," a rude
rebuff to Chinese and Russian efforts to resume the
talks without preconditions. China and Russia share
borders with North Korea and can ill afford the
consequences resulting from the further
destabilization of the peninsula. Clinton said that U.S.-Japanese collaboration
should include the "full range of global and strategic
issues, from nuclear proliferation to maritime
security." [16] Japan will soon send a delegation of military
officials to the U.S. to inspect Global Hawk unmanned
aerial vehicles for acquisition "at a time of
heightened tensions with neighbouring China and North
Korea." "The defense ministry will start fully fledged
research in the next fiscal year starting April, and
intends to make a final decision on whether to deploy
such aircraft by the end of fiscal 2015." [17] Global Hawks fly at an altitude of 60,000 feet, can
survey up to 40,000 square miles of territory a day,
and cost $35 million apiece. The day Clinton met with the country's foreign
minister, it was reported that Japan will "move the
command post for its missile defense system from a
Self-Defense Force facility to a US airbase this
year." Japan's Defense Ministry said that "the plan will
see the Air Self-Defense Force Command in Fuchu, Tokyo
move into the compound of the US Yokota airbase in the
same city. "The shift will begin in March and is expected to
be complete within the year. [T]he move will help the
Self-Defense Force improve its speed of detection and
response to incoming missiles identified by US
early-warning satellites…." [18] On January 10 the Japanese press disclosed that the
"government will approve the transfer by the United
States of next-generation antimissile missiles
currently under joint Japan-U.S. development to
third-party countries," in the most fragrant violation
yet of the constitutional prohibition against
so-called collective self-defense. The initiative will permit "the United States to
have…SM-3 [Standard Missile-3] Block IIA missiles
deployed in Europe and other parts of the world" and
is "aimed at showing Japan's resolve to deepen its
alliance with the United States, several government
sources have revealed. "The Obama administration has been seeking Japan's
accord on deployment of the next-generation missiles,
which are being developed primarily to beef up
Japanese, U.S. and European missile defense networks."
[19] What Japan and the U.S. are collaborating on is the
deployment of dozens of SM-3 missiles adapted for
land-based deployments (as part of what the U.S. calls
the Aegis Ashore program) in Romania, Poland and other
nations on and near Russia's western borders. At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in
Lisbon, Portugal in November, the 28-member military
bloc endorsed U.S. plans to place the European
continent under an American-dominated interceptor
missile shield. The SM-3 is the interceptor missile heart of the
Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System developed by
the Pentagon, which has as its only partner to date
the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. In 2007, 2008 and again in October of last year
Japanese Aegis class warships launched SM-3s in tests
run from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range
Facility on Kauai, Hawaii. In the most recent test,
the recently upgraded JDS Kirishima guided missile
destroyer fired an SM-3 100 miles over the Pacific to
destroy a ballistic missile target, a "significant
milestone in the growing cooperation between Japan and
the U.S. in the area of missile defense." [20] Tokyo's new National Defense Program Guidelines
mandate equipping all six of its Aegis class warships
with SM-3s as observed earlier. In addition to rendering the U.S. services for the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Japan is also planning
to become the first non-NATO nation to join the
Pentagon in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti by
opening its first overseas military base since World
War Two. [21] Japan's military partnership with the U.S. will
include joint endeavors in three continents – Asia,
Europe and Africa – and the Middle East and the
Arabian Sea. On January 5 one of the main architects of
heightened U.S.-Japan and U.S.-Japan-South Korea
strategic military integration, Admiral Michael
Mullen, released his Joint Chiefs of Staff's guidance
for 2011, "relaying the admiral's priorities and
strategic objectives for the year." [22] The document addresses Pentagon plans for the world
and these component policies: -"We will contribute to stability and defend our
vital national interests in the broader Middle East
and South Central Asia. -"Over the last year, the balance of our resources
and effort shifted from the war in Iraq to the one in
Afghanistan. "We must continue to transition well in Iraq and
lay the foundation for a long-term partnership between
our two countries. "This transition in Iraq has allowed us to alter
our posture and focus in the Gulf and in the Levant."
-"The most significant threat to regional stability
remains an Iranian regime that seeks the development
of nuclear weapons, even as it continues to support
terrorist organizations and acts throughout the
broader Middle East. "Accordingly, and in keeping with the President's
National Security Strategy, we will reassure our
partners and allies through our efforts to build their
defense capabilities and capacity. "We will continue to plan for a broad range of
military options should the President decide to use
force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear arms.
Pursuant to that, we will maintain – as we have
maintained – a robust force presence in the Gulf
region." -"We face additional challenges and opportunities
elsewhere around the globe. We must continue to
support local efforts to combat the extremist threat
that emanates from places like Somalia, Yemen and
North Africa." -"In Europe, we will…implement a new NATO Strategic
Concept by placing increased emphasis on cyber
security, ballistic missile defense, and
nonproliferation." And, most saliently: "In the response to an aggressive North Korea and a
more assertive China, our efforts to balance risk have
increasingly focused on Asia. "We will be prepared to support and defend our
freedom of navigation and access to the global
commons. Our partners and allies are our greatest
strategic asset in the region. We will work with them
to conduct multilateral exercises and operations…."
[23] At the forefront of the Pentagon's strategic assets
in the Asia-Pacific area and increasingly far beyond
is Japan. 1) Obama, Gates And Clinton In Asia: U.S.
Expands Military Build-Up In http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ 2010/../obama-gates-and-
clinton-in-asia-u-s-expands-military-build-
up-in-the-east 2) U.S. Supports Japan, Confronts China And
Russia Over Island http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/
2010/../u-s-supports-japan- confronts-china-and-russia-over-island-disputes 3) Russian Information Agency Novosti, January
7, 2011 http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/
2009/../proliferation-
security-initiative-and-us-1000-ship-navy-control-
of-worlds-oceans-prelude-to-war 9) U.S. Risks Military Clash With China In
Yellow Sea http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/
2010/../u-s-risks-military-clash-
with-china-in-yellow-sea 10) Stars and Stripes, January 11, 2011 http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/news/NDPG.pdf. 13) Asahi Shimbun December 11, 2011 http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/
2010/../u-s-builds-military-alliance- with-japan-south-korea-for-war-in-the-east 15) Kyodo News, December 11, 2010 http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ 2010/../japanese-military-joins-u-s-
and-nato-in-horn-of-africa 22) Department of Defense, January 5, 2011 http://www.jcs.mil//content/files/
2011-01/011011165132_CJCS_Annual_Guidance_2011.pdf |
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