Washington and Tokyo have agreed to accelerate military cooperation between U. S. and Japanese forces, bolstering maritime and ballistic missile defense and expanding into new areas such as cyberwarfare, in an attempt to curb the threat of North Korea to the Pacific region.
Washington and Tokyo have agreed to accelerate military cooperation between U. S. and Japanese forces, bolstering maritime and ballistic missile defense and expanding into new areas such as cyberwarfare, in an attempt to curb the threat of North Korea to the Pacific region.
Bilateral talks in Washington on Thursday between Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and Foreign Minister Taro Kono, took place days after North Korea backed off threats to test launch missiles against U. S. military targets in Guam, missiles that would fly over Japanese airspace.
The threat against Guam capped a tense several weeks that saw a sharp escalation in rhetoric between the regime in Pyongyang and the Trump White House. Mr. Trump vowed to rain “fire and fury” against North Korea after a pair of successful test launches of long-range ballistic missiles in July. While the threat of war between the U. S. and the North has subsided, the U. S. and its Pacific allies remain on the “front line” in the simmering conflict, Mr. Mattis said.
“Japan and the Republic of Korea are on the front line against the North Korean threat. We in the United States recognize any confrontation with North Korea would pose an immediate danger to our allies and their populations, ” he said alongside Mr. Tillerson and his Japanese counterparts during a press conference at the State Department.
As a result of the growing military threat posed by North Korea, “our militaries are also cooperating in new ways, ” the Pentagon chief said, adding “Together, we will deter and, if necessary, defeat any threat.”
However, administration critics claim Mr.
