Washington: Prior talks with Tokyo not needed for US military dispatch to Korea

Washington: Prior talks with Tokyo not needed for US military dispatch to Korea. November. 18, 2014 06:51. .

Washington officially confirmed on Monday that it would automatically deploy U.S. forces in Japan according to the U.S-Korea alliance without a prior consultation with Tokyo in case of North Korea’s provocation of South Korea or emergency on the Korean Peninsula. At a Q&A session with reporters in the name of the spokesman’s office, the U.S. Department of State said that it does not consult contingency plan, adding that it is fully prepared to implement the Mutual Defense Treaty between the U.S. and South Korea.

According to diplomatic source in Washington on Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense said through the Korean Embassy in the U.S., “There is no change in our policy (on the development of the U.S. forces in case of contingency on the Korean Peninsula).” The source said, “Based on the existing plan, it reconfirmed that the U.S. forces in Japan will be sent to the Korean Peninsula without prior consultation with Tokyo.”

This confirmation was made at a time when some Japan experts in the U.S. agreed with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who had claimed that sending the U.S. forces in Japan to Korea must be consulted with Tokyo in advance in July this year.

The Japanese Kyodo news agency said that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the budget committee of the Upper House on July 15 this year. When Rep. Shigefumi Matsuzawa of the minority Your Party asked Abe, the prime minister said, “U.S. Marines cannot rush without first engaging in prior consultation with Japan. Unless Japan allows it, it cannot leave Japan to help Korea.”

The news agency said that the use of U.S. military bases in Japan for combat operations is subject to prior consultation between the two countries under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the U.S. and Japan.

In a contribution to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Tuesday last week, Jeffrey Hornung, an associate professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, said, “What Abe said is legally accurate...In other words, Washington has to consult with Tokyo for all cases of combat operations outside of Japan, even Korea.”