SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea, fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine in its first major conflict since the Korean War, on Monday adopted its ally’s tone in lambasting warming Japanese ties to NATO.
Indo-Pacific power Japan quietly opened a dedicated mission to the transatlantic military alliance last week. Tokyo’s prior relationships with NATO had been managed through its embassy in Brussels. The move reflects wider concerns in Tokyo about regional security alliances as Donald Trump returns to the White House for the second time this week.
“Japan set up its independent mission in NATO at a time when the security environment in the Asia-Pacific region is more seriously threatened due to the U.S. provocative military hegemony,” reported North Korea’s official KCNA news agency, monitored in Seoul on Monday. “This is a dangerous act of adding new instability to the regional situation.”
Moscow has been a harsh critic of NATO’s post-Cold War expansion into Eastern Europe and its strong support of Ukraine in its effort to fight off a Russian invasion. Speaking to a conference of Russia experts last November, President Vladimir Putin called NATO a “blatant anachronism” and accused it of being subject to “the diktat of the older brother” — the U.S.
Similarly, the KCNA said Japan’s new relationship with NATO is “escalating the military tension in the region … pursuant to the U.S. strategy for world domination to expand NATO’s sphere of influence into the Asia-Pacific region.”
While the democracies of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific have been upgrading relations in recent years, they are nowhere near as advanced as the ties currently being forged on the battlefield between Russia and North Korea. After the signing of a bilateral strategic partnership agreement in June, North Korea has sent some 11,000 to 13,000 troops and artillery to aid in Russia’s fight with Ukraine — the first third-party state to join the fight.
By comparison, Japan’s tightening ties with NATO look modest.
On Jan. 16, Tokyo opened a mission to NATO, complete with a dedicated ambassador, Osamu Izawa. NATO Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Boris Ruge visited Japan and South Korea last week.
NATO is cooperating with the U.S. Asian allies through four projects: military health care support for Ukraine; cyber defense; countering disinformation; and artificial intelligence.
Since 2015, when it reinterpreted its pacifist constitution, Japan, which has a mutual defense treaty with the U.S., has been expanding its defense posture, assets and partnerships. Tokyo has been engaged in a bloodless but tense yearslong confrontation with China over the uninhabited Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, and Japan has expressed strong support for Taiwan in its face-off with Beijing.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, a defense specialist, has floated the idea of an “Asian NATO,” but with his Liberal Democrats having lost their majority in the Diet last October, there seems little likelihood of Mr. Ishiba’s grand plan proceeding.
Even so, at a time of global jitters about the incoming Trump administration’s approach to alliances, Mr. Ishiba’s government is reaching out not just to NATO, but also to allies in the region.
In Washington for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, Mr. Ishiba’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya met his counterparts from Australia and India, Japanese media reported Monday. The three countries, along with the U.S., are members of the China-facing “Quad” — a security dialogue, not an actual alliance. Mr. Iwaya said on Sunday that the organization, which was backed by both the first Trump and the Biden administrations, is needed “more than ever” to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Questions hang over the foreign policy direction of Japan’s neighbor, South Korea. Seoul-Tokyo cooperation soared under the government of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, inaugurated in 2022. But with Mr. Yoon now impeached, following his shock declaration of martial law last month, the future direction of ties is unclear.
South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who could feasibly win the presidency if Mr. Yoon’s impeachment is upheld, has spoken out strongly against Mr. Yoon’s pro-Japan policies.
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.