South Korean President Park Geun-hye, U.S. President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hold a trilateral summit in March 2015. Japan Prime Minister’s Office Photo
Lingering antagonism between Japan and Korea are part of a host of reasons relations between the two key U.S. allies in Asia have yet to improve, according to a Tuesday panel at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Read More
Kim Jong Un only wants talks under terms and conditions that don’t require him to democratize or scuttle his nuclear weapons program, a former top security adviser to the Republic of Korea’s president said Wednesday. Read More
The United States is willing to resume talks with North Korea over denuclearizing the peninsula if Pyongyang is willing to “unclench its fist” and commit to guidelines it agreed to almost a decade ago, America’s special envoy to the six-party talks said. Read More
The following is the April 3, 2015 Congressional Research Service report, Ballistic Missile Defense in the Asia-Pacific Region: Cooperation and Opposition. Read More
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works of Kobe Harbor in Kobe, Hyogo prefecture, Japan in 2006. via Wikipedia
The recent relaxation of Tokyo’s ban on arms exports has introduced Japan as a budding player in the international arms market. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has given the go-ahead for Japanese firms to compete internationally for arms contracts. Read More
People’s Liberation Army Navy Type-92 submarine nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SSBN). PLAN Photo
While Russia continues to steadily invest in strategic capabilities, the head of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) said there is some transparency in what they are spending money on because of treaty requirements. But with China the story is very different, Adm. Cecil Haney told the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. Read More
The following is the trilateral information sharing arrangement concerning the nuclear and missile threats posed by North Korea between the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Korea, the Ministry of Defense of Japan and the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The three countries signed the agreement on Dec. 28, 2014. Read More
A Soviet Golf II class ballistic missile submarine underway in 1985. North Korea is reportedly building its own sea-based nuclear deterrent based on the Golf II design. DoD Photo
Recent reports that North Korea is developing submarines based on obsolete Golf-II class Soviet-era submarines has gained worldwide attention. However obsolete, it is reported that North Korea had invested its time in “examining and replicating” the missile-launch system of the Soviet-era subs. Read More
2012 North Korean missile test.
While the United States, Republic of Korea and Japan speak often about the nuclear missile threat posed by North Korea to all three nations, the former commander of the combined forces on the Korean peninsula said the allies may be missing a very real, but less thought about dangers. “The best way to deliver a nuclear weapon to Seoul” could be “a rickety old wooden airplane,” or a drone or a ship pulling into a nearby harbor. Read More
A CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter takes off from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6). US Navy Photo
The South Korean government has released USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) from the search for more than 100 passengers still missing after the April 16 sinking of the ferry Sewol, according to the U.S. Navy. Read More
