Tighter defense ties with Seoul eyed

SEOUL--Officials from Japan and South Korea are working on a memorandum designed to establish more systematic exchanges between the Self-Defense Forces and the South Korean military, sources said Monday.

While exchange of officers and cadets as well as joint training exercises have been held periodically since the 1990s, past attempts to improve the exchange program have often failed due to fallout over Japan's handling of issues related to the history between the two nations.

The two sides hope to sign a memorandum that would have some binding power in order to stabilize such exchanges in the future.

According to the sources, the memorandum would cover things like mutual visits of high-ranking officers from the two countries, exchanges between the National Defense Academy of Japan and the Korea Military Academy, as well as joint maritime rescue training exercises.

Officials from the two sides hope to have the memorandum completed for a signing ceremony in South Korea by Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and National Defense Minister Lee Sang Hee before the end of the year.

Exchanges between the SDF and the South Korean military became more active after the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula in 1994.

In 2001, however, a planned visit to South Korea by a Maritime SDF fleet and a joint maritime rescue training exercise were postponed due to concerns raised in Seoul about Japanese textbooks that were considered revisionist.

Meetings between the defense ministers of the two nations were later suspended for about 20 months after then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni Shrine, which memorializes not only Japan's war dead but also Class-A war criminals.

According to the sources, working-level discussions led to an agreement on the general outline of the memorandum last July.(IHT/Asahi: April 29,2008)