[Opinion] Worries about Japan`s Military Expansionism

The incident of an unidentified ship traced by the Japanese patrol ship sunk in the East China Sea provides a pretext for Japan to expand its Military power. Japan decided to launch 4 military spy satellites that can identify an object of 1 m2 by 2002 and announced a joint research on the Territorial Missile Defense system (TMD) as if it had been waiting for the NK`s Daepodong missile test in August 1998. North Korea actually provided a pretext to the Japanese Congress, which had been searching for reason to change the resolution by the Japanese Congress which states that, "[Japan] will not launch any object to the space that is not for peace."

Japan amended its Marine Security Guard law to allow the shooting of unidentified ships that intrude into the Japanese territory in the fall of last year after an unidentified ship, that was suspected as a North`s, intruded into the Japanese territory and returned to a harbor in the North in March 1999.

In addition, while anxious moves of the Japanese Military, such as the dispatch of the Japanese Self Defense Force to the foreign country for the first time, and taking the advantage of the U.S. war on terrorism, have continued, another `record` is added by the firing of the machine gun against an unidentified ship by the tracing Japanese patrol ship.

Japan rushes to adjust its laws, which allow the warning shots against ships even outside its territory. Therefore, if the report and the information of the U.S. spy satellite that the unidentified ship departed from the Nampo harbor and it communicated with the North turns out affirmative, the North will have supported the Japanese Military expansion after the World War II once again. The North, which has criticized the overseas dispatch of the Japanese Military and its Military expansionism, must face the fact that it actually has helped the military expansion of Japan.

It is also noteworthy that the Japanese patrol ship fired in the Exclusive Economic Zone of China. Japan has harshly warned frequently against the Chinese ship intruding into the Japanese territory to conduct investigating operations. But now, the Japanese ship cross over the EEZ line of China to chase the unidentified ship and fired. Such aggressive action of Japan in the midst of the increasing worries about the Japan`s rightist inclination is very intriguing.

It is concerning that this incident might set up a precedent of marine conflicts between Japan and China while the two countries have already confronted against each other in terms of the territorial intrusion.

The U.S.-Japan New Defense Cooperation Guideline, which describes the Japanese participation in the conflicts to help the U.S. when a crisis arise nearby the Japanese islands, assumes primarily the situation in the Korean peninsula but in fact includes the situation in the Taiwan channels. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully watch over the influence of the Japanese such aggressive military action on the peace and security of the East Asia.

Meanwhile, Japan showed off its excellent intelligence capability. The Japanese intelligence agents, which had shown its world best intelligence capability when it recorded the communication between the Korean Airline pilots and the Russian air fighters before the crash of the Korean airplane, proved its capability again by intercepting the communication between the unidentified ship and the North.

Japan already established `Intelligence Headquarters`, which combined the intelligence units of the Inland, Marine, and Air Self-Defense Guards, in January 1997, and opened its way to the intelligence power by establishing the Visual Analysis Department that will analyze the data from satellites, anticipating the launch of the spy satellites.

Japanese professor Sakada, who announced that the North had a nuclear facility in Yongbyun, testified that the Japanese civil satellites could collect information as well as the spy satellite could. Hence, when Japan launches a military spy satellite, the Korean peninsula will be naked to the Japanese intelligence units.

North Korea must not provide any pretext for the Japanese military expansion any more. And Japan also must remember that the military expansion of Japan by taking an advantage of this incident will not be helpful for the peace and security of the East Asia.

Kim Kyung-Min (Professor of International Politics, Hanyang University)