Allies work on sharing North Korea missile warning data

From left, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Yoon Suk Yeol meet ahead of a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit Leaders' Meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, Sunday. AFP-Yonhap

By Lee Hyo-jin

South Korea, the United States and Japan are in talks over detailed plans regarding the real-time sharing of North Korean missile warning data, according to the Ministry of National Defense, Monday.

The three countries have been discussing the possibility of launching a data-sharing framework for the last few months and speculation is rising that the arrangement may be announced in the near future.

“The three nations have agreed to share real-time missile warning data during a trilateral summit held last November. And during the Defense Trilateral Talks (DTT) held in April, we have reviewed ways to utilize the existing Trilateral Information Sharing Arrangement (TISA) in doing so,” Defense Ministry spokesperson Jeon Ha-kyu said during a briefing, sharing the latest updates on the related talks.

Although Jeon did not give an exact timeline about when the final arrangement will be announced, it is expected that defense chiefs of the three nations may reach an agreement on the sidelines of the upcoming Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual Asian defense summit scheduled for early June in Singapore.

Currently, South Korea and Japan are separately linked to data from U.S. radar systems concerning the detection of North Korean missiles but there is no system linking all of the Asian nations directly. Due to North Korea's growing nuclear competence, the need for three-way intelligence-sharing capabilities has become more apparent.

Related talks have gained momentum as bilateral relations between Seoul and Tokyo have continued to improve in recent months.

Shin Jong-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, a think tank, believes that a real-time data-sharing framework, once launched, will be a win-win for participating countries.

“The sharing of intelligence data will lead to the enhancement of South Korea's missile interception capabilities,” he said. “But since it would be difficult to directly link the radar systems of South Korea and Japan, it is most likely for them to link their systems through the U.S. one.”

With trilateral security cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo accelerating, some suggest that Japan may be invited to join the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG), a consultative body set to be launched between South Korea and the U.S. in order to strengthen extended deterrence.

However, Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul ruled out the possibility of Tokyo's participation in the NCG.

“The NCG itself is operated between South Korea and the U.S. I don't think there will be moves to include Japan in the consultative group in the following summits,” he said during an interview with local radio, Monday.

During a trilateral summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, which was briefly held on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, Sunday, Biden invited Yoon and Kishida for a trilateral summit in Washington.

Although detailed plans have yet to be announced, if set, the summit would be a major diplomatic event for the Yoon administration, which has been seeking to enhance trilateral cooperation with Washington and Tokyo.

Shin thinks that the summit will focus on broadening the sphere of cooperation between the three nations. “To say that military cooperation was the focus of trilateral ties, I think there will be discussions to strengthen partnerships in supply chain and cutting-edge technologies,” he said.

The three leaders may hold a trilateral summit in Washington as early as July, according to local media reports.

“The possibility of holding a South Korea-U.S.-Japan summit this summer in Washington is being talked about,” a presidential official was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.