Framework to share information on N.K. missiles in real-time

South Korea, the U.S., and Japan agreed to build a framework to share North Korea’s missile alert information in real time and fully operate the framework by this year. They are planning to use the Hawaii Cell Remote Communication Site under the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command as a hub to communicate information among the three countries. The information to be shared is the estimated missile launch point, flight trajectory, and estimated landing location. The discussions which had taken place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in November last year are being concretized.

South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada attended the trilateral meeting on June 3 at the 20th Asian Security Conference (Shangri-La Dialogue) held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. After the meeting, a joint statement was declared that the three countries would activate a real-time sharing mechanism to enhance their respective nation’s detection and evaluation capabilities to prepare for North Korea’s missile launch.

After meeting with Defense Minister Hamada on Sunday, Minister Lee replied that they would focus on preventing reoccurrence when asked about the conflict on patrol plans, which had been ongoing since December 2018. It is the first time in three years and six months since the defense ministers between Korea and Japan met.

“Both countries’ had clearly different positions for a long time and agreed that this would not be resolved by determining what is right or wrong. Regarding the patrol plan issue, both sides would leave the issue as it is and discuss ways to prevent the same incident from happening again based on mutual trust for a future-oriented relationship,” said a high-ranking official with the Defense Ministry.


Hyo-Ju Son hjson@donga.com