South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (right) shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Credit: AFP
China needs to be aware A Chinese military official warned that South Korea, Japan and the United States are strengthening military and intelligence ties.
The wake-up call in a People's Liberation Army newspaper follows a surge in joint US exercises with two of its Asian allies and a thaw in Seoul-Tokyo ties when Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met twice in two months. /. p>
«If the United States, Japan and South Korea form an integrated alliance, it is likely to create a bloc confrontation in Northeast Asia,» PLA researchers write, according to the South China Morning Post. The alliance will increase tensions and provoke an arms race, they said.
On Monday, Washington welcomed the landmark Japan-South Korea summit that shocked Beijing with fears that its neighbors in the region are making a strategic turn towards Washington will curb its territorial ambitions.
Mr. Kishida's two-day visit to Seoul marked a the revival of «shuttle diplomacy» between the two countries after a 12-year hiatus following a Korean-proposed deal to compensate victims of forced labor during Japanese colonial rule on the Korean peninsula in 1910–1945.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in Seoul. Photo: Yonhap
The two leaders stressed that historical differences should not prevent closer cooperation to address growing regional security concerns, welcoming the speed with which their ties are strengthening and progress in talks to share information on North Korea's missile tests more quickly.
“Both South Korea and Japan are facing a major security challenge in Northeast Asia, and Prime Minister Kishida and I share the view that we are at the crossroads of changes of historic proportions,” said President Yong, reflecting the growing nuclear threat from Pyongyang. and the growing rivalry between the US and China.
Mr. Yun and Mr. Kishida are expected to hold trilateral talks with US President Joe Biden later this month on the sidelines of the G-7 meeting in Hiroshima to discuss North Korea and regional instability amid China's increasingly assertive foreign policy.
«We thank Prime Minister Kishida and President Yong for their leadership,» a State Department spokesman said on Monday.
Thawing relations have cooled Beijing, according to Chinese media reports.
On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry urged the two capitals to seek closer relations with Beijing.
«As close neighbors, China, Japan and South Korea should work together to maintain the political foundation of bilateral relations and commit to the stable, healthy and sustainable development of triangular cooperation,» said spokesman Wang Wenbin.
But In a sign of latent tensions, Chinese state media have lashed out at Seoul in recent days following South Korea's complaint about sensational, inappropriate and provocative coverage of President Yong's recent state visit to the United States to discuss deeper nuclear cooperation. /p>
The Global Times, known for its nationalist reporting, accused Mr. Yun of «blindly following the United States» and «bowing to Japan to please Washington.»
This was in response to a diplomatic rebuke from accusing South Korea of »violently interfering with our independent reporting.»
South Korea, while wary of upsetting its biggest trading partner, has taken a tougher stance on China under the Yoon administration.
>President Yong said last week that China's refusal to implement UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program left Seoul no choice but to rely more on Washington's extended deterrence.
UNSC talks on US efforts to set up a 15-member body to condemn North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches reportedly stalled after diplomats said China and Russia had ceased engagement.
Свежие комментарии