Military buildup of Japan, Australia sparks regional arms race

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gets into the cockpit of a U.S. fighter jet during his visit to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier in Sagami Bay, southwest of Tokyo, Nov. 6. AP-Yonhap

North Korea expected to exploit military buildup

By Kang Seung-woo

Earlier this year, North Korea's growing provocations with the launches of upgraded weapons sparked concerns about a possible arms race in East Asia. The North Korean threat has caused a chain reaction leading to military buildups by Australia and Japan in the Asia-Pacific region. This has intensified speculation that a regional arms race is inevitable.

Japan's recent pursuit of a military buildup is raising concerns about a regional arms race due to North Korea's nuclear ambitions, according to diplomatic observers, Monday.

In addition, Australia's push to build nuclear-powered submarines with the United States and the United Kingdom under the AUKUS security agreement is deepening concerns over the growing competition among neighboring countries to get more or better weapons. AUKUS is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S.

On Friday, the Japanese government released its revised national security strategy amid growing threats from China, North Korea and Russia, highlighted by an acquisition of counterstrike capabilities and a defense budget hike, which is seen as a major break from its defense-only principle.

"Although North Korea's nuclear and missile threats are the biggest reason for an arms race in the region, the entire world has been moving to enhance their conventional weapons since Russia's invasion of Ukraine," said Go Myong-hyun, a senior fellow of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

"It is obvious that countries with high budgets should build up their defense capabilities. Although the Japan decision is giving us some dilemmas, the whole world is now moving toward a military buildup."

Japan's push for stronger rearmament has long been a source of concern for China as well as South Korea, the two victims of its past aggression, as it could prompt a regional arms race at a time when its neighbors believe Tokyo has yet to fully atone for its wartime atrocities.

Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told China's state-run Global Times, Friday that the present policy change will have an impact on the whole area, as many nations will have to raise their military spending, leading to a new arms race in Northeast Asia.

The military buildup by South Korea and Japan comes as the U.S. has a limited bandwidth to deal with its ongoing regional threats ― China, Russia and North Korea ― at the same time.

In that sense, Washington fully supports Tokyo's revision to its national security documents.

However, Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, said it is a concern that North Korea may exploit Japan's military buildup as a pretext for the modernization of its nuclear and missile programs.

The North Korean regime has accused the international community of applying double standards over missile tests.

In November, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said the United Nations Security Council "has turned blind eyes" to the military drills of the U.S. and South Korea and their greedy arms buildup, while taking issue with Pyongyang's "exercise of its inviolable right to self-defense."

"North Korea will be back to a narrative that Japan has unveiled its imperial ambitions of attacking Pyongyang and invading it as part of its efforts to justify its decision to develop its nuclear and missile weapons," he said.

The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Key West is anchored at a naval base in Busan, Nov. 2. Newsis

Park said since September, North Korea has taken issue with the combined military exercises between South Korea and the U.S., something the North had not seemed to mind in the past.

"In that respect, North Korea could use them as an excuse for its arms buildup," he added.

Along with the Japanese rearmament, Australia's envisaged nuclear-powered submarines are emerging as another cause for concern.

China has lambasted the nuclear submarine plan as a grave risk to non-proliferation that will only exacerbate an arms race, while Indonesia's Ambassador to Australia Siswo Pramono warned it must not fuel a hypersonic arms race in the region during his recent interview with the Guardian in November.

In response to the criticism, Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), admitted, last week, that he was aware of the political repercussions of this decision in this region in particular.

"The three countries involved are still in a process of technical exchanges to see what kind of system they are going to adapt, what kind of reactor they will be applying, and once they have a conclusion about that, then we will have to sit down with them and see what are the necessary technical activities that we will have to perform in order to prevent any proliferation stemming from this project," he said during an interview with Korean reporters at the foreign ministry in Seoul, Friday.