South Korea and Japan on Sunday reaffirmed their commitment to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and agreed to revive joint search-and-rescue drills in a step forward for security ties between the neighbouring countries.
Meeting in Seoul, South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back and his Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi agreed to work on regional stability bilaterally, as well as through their partnerships with Washington, in the sixth round of talks between the two countries.
“Both ministers shared the view to continue cooperation for maintaining regional peace and stability amid a grave security environment,” South Korea’s defence ministry said in a statement.
South Korea and Japan, with U.S. encouragement, have been working to develop closer ties since 2022 and overcome sometimes bitter historical differences, a policy continued by President Lee Jae Myung and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
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In 2019, Seoul moved to end the GSOMIA intelligence-sharing pact with Japan after Tokyo restricted exports of semiconductor materials and removed South Korea from its preferential trade list, over lingering grievances rooted in Japan’s past colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
In 2025, Japan’s then-Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and President Lee agreed to closer security and economic ties, and the defence ministers committed to working with Washington against North Korea’s nuclear threat and Pyongyang’s growing military ties with Russia, including cooperation on AI and unmanned systems and annual trilateral drills.