President Yoon States that He Does Not Take Issue with Japanese Arms Build Up
|It is refreshing to hear a Korean president speak the truth about why the Japanese are increasing their military capabilities instead of demagoguing the issue for political benefit:
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday that Japan’s moves to bolster its defense capabilities are hard to stop in the face of the threat of North Korea’s missiles.
Yoon made the remark during a joint policy briefing from the foreign and defense ministers, referring to Japan’s recent increase in its defense budget and its inclusion of the “counterstrike” concept in its revised security documents.
“We can wonder how a country adopting a pacifist constitution can do such things, but if there are missiles flying over their heads and the possibility of a nuclear strike, it’s not easy to stop,” he said during the meeting at the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae.
“Japan increased its defense budget because there are IRBMs flying over their heads, and decided to include the so-called ‘counterstrike’ concept in its defense plan,” he said, referring to intermediate-range ballistic missiles that North Korea fired over Japan. “How can anyone take issue with that?”
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but DPRK apologists in the Korean left will take issue with anything the Japan does to defend themselves. At least the current Korean President is not one of them.
I don’t think there’s anyone in Korea right now losing sleep over Japan spending money that they don’t have, on US military arms. If they want to bankrupt themselves by doubling their military spending to buy American weapons, go right ahead. It would be interesting to watch the train wreck.
The real question is what does the Korean defense policymakers think?
Japan has been used to justify the purchase of big ticket items such as the F-15K fighter and AEGIS destroyers. The reason being Japan has them so we should buy them.
Same goes for the F-35As. They weren’t on any long term plans until Japan bought them and set up a FACO in Nagoya.
If you consider the sorry state of NK’s air defense system and the ROK’s ability to neutralize them, F-35As might be overkill.
The possibility of the ROK having a nuclear deterrent of its own was the other thing that came out of the above mentioned meeting
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/01/356_343477.html
So Yoon wants Korean nukes.
Wonder who’s advising him considering that the idea probably didn’t originate from Yoon’s head.