Page 213 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

But even North Korea’s shelling of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong
Island in November of 2010 did not provide a sufficient
catalyst for the parties to unite behind a common statement
of purpose despite strong U.S. support for such an initiative.
North Korea’s provocations have consistently been a catalyst
for closer trilateral cooperation among the United States,
Japan, and South Korea even as North Korea has consistently
been a vocal critic of such cooperation and has utilized various
strategies in a bid to oppose strengthened U.S.-Japan-South
Korea trilateral cooperation. However, the larger impediment
to the realization of trilateral cooperation has primarily
revolved around the inability of both Japan and South Korea
to settle historical issues and achieve genuine reconciliation.
This despite South Korea and Japan sharing democratic
values, parallel and converging economic challenges and
political needs, and a common security guarantee relationship
with the United States.

However, the more effective catalyst for institutionalized U.S.-
South Korea-Japan trilateral cooperation clearly has been
China’s rising influence and its aspirations to replace the U.S.-
led rules-based regional order with a sinocentric “might makes
right” regional security hierarchy. Xi Jinping, rather than
Kim Jong-Un, has proven to be the more effective catalyst for
pushing the United States, Japan, and South Korea together,
this despite China’s consistent efforts through the 2010s to
exploit Japan-South Korea cultural and political tensions as a
primary means by which to prevent such a development.

A significant result of the convergence of threat perceptions
of the U.S., Japanese, and South Korean security communities

Chapter Thirteen : South Korea-Japan-US Cooperation: How to Deter North Korea and Convince China 213