South Korea’s categorical denial of Japanese media reports that it will conduct its first-ever joint military exercise with Japan highlights the ongoing challenges facing the two countries in strengthening military cooperation, despite growing threats from North Korea and an increasingly assertive China, analysts say.
On Tuesday, major Japanese news outlets reported that the South Korean Marine Corps would participate in a joint exercise with the Japan Ground Self-Defence Force (JGSDF) as part of Kamandag, an annual multinational military exercise in the Philippines scheduled for next month.
Kamandag – short for Kaagapay ng mga Mandirigma ng Dagat, or “Cooperation of the Warriors of the Sea” – is led by the Philippine Marine Corps and the US Marine Corps.
However, South Korea’s Marine Corps swiftly denied the reports.
“We will conduct combined drills with the United States and the Philippines, but there is no plan to do so with the JGSDF,” a defence ministry spokesman told This Week in Asia on Wednesday. “As in previous years, the South Korean Marine Corps and the JGSDF will conduct separate exercises.”
A Marine Corp officer told Yonhap news agency: “There won’t be any scenario in which Korean marines and JGSDF troops share the same vessel.”
