By Jun Ji-hye
South Korea and China will soon open a military hotline to facilitate direct communication between their defense chiefs, the Ministry of National Defense said Thursday.
It said officials of the two sides are making final preparations.
“We cannot confirm the exact timing, but can say that the opening is almost ready,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok also noted that working-level officials of the two nations are testing technical aspects of the hotline.
“Chinese officials recently visited Seoul,” he said. “The hotline will be established after these experiments are completed.”
The two sides have been consulting since February when Defense Minister Han Min-koo and his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan agreed to establish a military hotline between their respective ministries at the earliest possible date.
At the time, the ministry said the hotline was expected to be set up in the first half of the year.
When it is established, Beijing will be Seoul’s third hotline contact. Seoul already has connections with Washington and Tokyo.
Discussions about a minister-level military hotline between Seoul and Beijing began in 2007, with China reportedly having been reluctant to proceed, apparently wary of harming relations with North Korea.
Defense observers say Beijing’s decision to set up the hotline is seen as its apparent effort to cope with the rapidly changing situation in the Northeast Asian region as Seoul, Japan and United States have enhanced their military cooperation.
The three countries signed a pact in December to share sensitive military intelligence on North Korea and better deter increasing threats from the reclusive state.
For their part, Tokyo and Washington also upgraded their defense cooperation in the revision of defense guidelines on April 28, allowing Japan to militarily support nearby countries under attack, even if it is not directly attacked.
From China’s point of view, it cannot avoid conflict with Japan and the U.S. when handling territorial issues in the South China Sea.
Whether to allow the U.S. to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery on the Korean Peninsula is a prickly issue with Beijing as well. It has been pressing Seoul to reject the deployment, saying the system could be used to nullify China’s military strike capabilities.
Setting up the military hotline between Seoul and Beijing, meanwhile, is expected to deepen the isolation of North Korea, give that China is the North’s most important ally.
Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye