Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s president, from left, US President Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister, at a news conference during a trilateral summit at Camp David, Maryland, US, on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. Biden is looking for a way to weave the US trilateral relationship with allies Japan and South Korea so tightly together it wont unravel as it has done in the past. (Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, flanked by the leaders of South Korea and Japan, hailed today’s meetings at Camp David as laying in place the structure for a “relationship that will last” and promising significant new engagements between the three nations’ national security apparatuses.
“This is a new era and partnership between Japan and the Republic of Korea and the United States,” Biden said during a press conference held at the presidential retreat in northern Maryland.
Although specific details were limited, White House statements released alongside the trilateral meeting said the leaders “affirmed the decision to activate a data-sharing mechanism to exchange real-time missile warning data that would improve the detection and assessment of [North Korea] missile launches, building upon the commitment made by leaders at their meeting in Phnom Penh last year.”
The mechanism will be “operationalized” by the end of 2023, according to the statement. The countries have also agreed to “a multi-year trilateral framework that includes annual, named, multi-domain trilateral exercises, which will constitute an unprecedented level of trilateral defense cooperation.”
American officials told reporters ahead of the summit that investments would be made in a new hotline to assist in data sharing between the three countries as well as a “commitment to consult” on any issue that might affect security in the Indo-Pacific. Further, a new “trilateral working group” will be establish to counter North Korean “cyber activities.”
“The working group will focus on sharing intelligence; coordinating responses to the DPRK’s cryptocurrency use, theft, and laundering; addressing the DPRK’s use of IT workers for revenue generation through diplomatic and industry engagement; and disrupting malicious cyber actor operations,” according to the White House statement.
South Korea and Japan have a bitter history dating back to World War II and its leaders have been encountering opposition at home to their recent bilateral engagements as well as the visit to Camp David. American officials, including Biden himself, have repeatedly praised Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for their willingness to engage one another.
“A strong alliance of values among Korea, the US and Japan will help build a world that’s more peaceful and prosperous by serving as a sturdy foundation,” Yoon said during the press conference today.
Kishida added, “We will consider the Camp David principles issued today as a historic turning point for the international community to be a new compass for trilateral cooperation.”
