U.S.-Japan Security Cooperation and the Two Koreas

Abstract

U.S.-Japan security cooperation is closely intertwined with the two Korean states. The United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) are de facto allies thanks to Washington’s bilateral military alliances with both Tokyo and Seoul. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) enters the equation as the principal source of threat to the security of all three. The North Korean threat, perceived or real, increased measurably in the early 1990s with the emergence of the nuclear issue—that is, Pyongyang’s suspected nuclear weapons development program and its intransigence via-a-vis the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United States, South Korea, and Japan.