Page 230 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

David Summit (2023) and especially in light of tightening
ties between Pyongyang and both China and Russia, have
clearly recognized the strategic importance of closer multi-
dimensional economic and security cooperation.

This volume is filled with chapters praising the Camp David
initiative and advocating for stronger trilateral cooperation
between Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo. I strongly
agree with and endorse them all. Especially important
is the institutionalization, or what one author called the
“concretization,” of the three-way relationship and the need
for international pressure to compel Beijing to end its forced
repatriation program.

Please note that while some enthusiastic supporters now refer
to a U.S.-South Korea-Japan “trilateral alliance,” purists will
continue to call it an arrangement or cooperative agreement
or use language of that sort. While formal alliances exist
between the United States and South Korea and between the
United States and Japan, there is no formal alliance between
South Korea and Japan or formally among the three. It would
take a great deal of political courage in all three capitals, and
perhaps a constitutional change or at least reinterpretation in
Japan, for a formal trilateral alliance to be created. However,
if all the Camp David (2023) initiatives and agreements can
be institutionalized, it will go a long way toward establishing
what I have previously dubbed as a trilateral “virtual alliance”
cementing cooperation among the three like-minded partners
who share democratic values and comparable social and legal
systems.

230 Section III : South Korea-Japan-U.S. Cooperation: How to Deter Pyongyang and Dissuade Beijing