Japan’s Stance on a United Korea: Ambivalence or Realpolitik?
Jagannath Panda
Introduction:
Northeast Asia is at a critical juncture amid the gross uncertainty and chaos brought upon by geopolitical forces not just in the region but globally too.
A wide range of factors have resulted in increasing the threat levels in the region.
- The ongoing China-US rivalry;
- Debilitating aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected the region’s stability;
- Russia-China collusion that started prior to the invasion of Ukraine;
- China’s continued tacit approval of Russian actions during the ongoing war in Ukraine;
- Japan’s rising perception as a global power and the increasing hostilities with some neighbors;
- South Korea’s election of the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol as the country’s 20th president, which has raised hopes and fears; and
- North Korea’s resumption of ballistic missile tests (and a prospective seventh nuclear test).
Related Publications
-
ISDP Annual Report 2023
ISDP’s Annual Report for the year 2023. We look back on 2023, a year in which tensions and conflicts captured the strategic space in ISDP’s focus areas, making headlines around […]
-
South Korea’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, Atmanirbhar Bharat, and the IPEF: Convergence and Commonality
For some time now, the existing multilateral networks such as those of the United Nations (UN) system have been largely ineffective in providing good global governance and helping create resilience, […]
-
Washington Declaration: Beyond Korea, What it Means for India?
In April 2023, South Korea and the United States released the Washington Declaration to reiterate and upgrade their treaty alliance. In outlining a joint nuclear deterrence strategy, the Declaration reaffirmed […]
-
Korea Looks to Europe: Its Growing Military-Strategic Cooperation with NATO
Korea is looking to Europe in the military-strategic dimension. It wants to boost ties with NATO even as strengthening relations with the AP4 (four Asia-Pacific partners) forms an important aspect […]
-
Will Yoon’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Tackle the China Threat?
In late-December 2022, South Korea under the relatively new presidency of Yoon Suk-yeol effectively concluded its policy shift from “strategic ambiguity” by releasing the “Strategy for a Free, Peaceful, and […]