InterviewSeoul-Tokyo economic security ties to deepen as NK-Russia axis grows, former Japanese spy chief says
SEOGWIPO, Jeju Island — South Korea and Japan will deepen economic security ties as the bond between North Korea and Russia grows stronger, former Japanese spy chief Shigeru Kitamura said Wednesday. "North Korea has been focusing on nuclear issues and has recently been putting efforts into building intense relations with Russia. It is the reality that Pyongyang is supplying their warheads to Russia in return for foreign currency," Kitamura said in an interview with The Korea Times on the sidelines of the Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity. "In the future, economic security between Seoul and Tokyo will be a big part in bilateral cooperation and the two countries will be able to cooperate in many forms." Kitamura, a former secretary-general of Japan's National Security Secretariat and one of the key aides to the Abe administration, attended the forum as a speaker for a session titled "Between Collective Defense and Collective Security: Toward a New Security Architecture in East Asia." During the session, he argued that alliances are essential to keeping the region stable, particularly a
