On the morning of the 6th, Foreign Minister Park Jin announced the payment of compensation for forced laborers in Japan at the expense of Korean companies, and US President Joe Biden said late at night on the 5th (the afternoon of the 6th in Korea), “It is the beginning of cooperation (Korea and Japan) and (both countries) "The United States will continue to support leaders in Japan and South Korea as they translate new understandings into sustained progress," the statement said.
Regarding self-reparation for conscripted workers under the Yoon Seok-yeol regime, at the Korea-US Summit last year, a joint statement was announced on “trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the US and Japan to strengthen the international order” with “agreement to strengthen supply chain, joint development, and manufacturing partnership in the defense sector”, and expanded arms sales to Europe from the Ukraine war. and adopted a strategy to ensure the expansion of arms production for the military industry in Japan.
The Biden administration is a three-way international order building system in the US military industry expansion, and instead of Korea selling US weapon substitutes to European countries, Japanese key companies started operating high-tech weapons production and sales, and mobilized Korea for European rearmament. .
The Biden system was limited to “securing a global supply chain” at the Korea-US summit, and then went to Japan and adopted “state-of-the-art semiconductor joint development and production” at the US-Japan summit.
The US-Japan summit was followed by the White House in January of this year, which was specified as “the two largest democracies in the world,” and “President Biden said, as shown in Japan’s new national security strategy, defense strategy, and defense building program, Japan is fundamentally Leadership in strengthening efforts was highly appreciated. This investment will strengthen security in the Indo-Pacific and beyond and modernize the US-Japan relationship for the 21st century," the joint statement assured Japan's defense industry expansion.
The US-Japan joint statement stated, "We will reaffirm our commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and further strengthen trilateral cooperation in areas such as security and economy," incorporating North Korea and the Korean Peninsula into the "South Korea-US-Japan trilateral system."
President Yoon said on the 1st, "Today, 104 years later, we have to look back on our past, where we lost our national sovereignty and suffered because we were not properly prepared for changes in world history." This is more important than ever,” he said.
“For decades, South Korea struggled to reverse-engineer US military hardware to make its own weapons. Hanwha was making dynamite in the 1970s when the government designated it as a defense contractor to make grenades, mines and flares. We hope that the weapons will help NATO arming,” the New York Times said on the 5th.
Regarding the NATO armament support method, the NYT said, "Poland's huge order will increase economies of scale, and Romania is another NATO country negotiating the purchase of Korean K9." Make export deals sweet and enhance buyers' domestic defense industry. Turkey has produced its own T-155 howitzer based on its main battle tank Altay and Korean models, Hanwha has built a factory in Australia to assemble the K9 with local suppliers, and most of the Korean howitzers Poland purchases are made in Poland with local partners. It will be produced together, and South Korea knows firsthand how powerful these incentives are.”
In 2018, during the Japanese colonial period, conscripted laborers won three lawsuits against the munitions industries, Nippon Steel (including Sumimoto Steel) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It is a method of paying compensation, including interest for delay, to the Japan’s Sumimoto Corporation announced on the 22nd of last month that MP Materials of the United States mines rare earth elements, which are essential for the production of weapons and electronic products, at the “Mountain Path” mine in California and sells them directly to Sumimoto Corporation.
Most of the rare earths from California's rare earth mines go to China for smelting, and Japanese companies have been purchasing products that have undergone smelting in China. Reported.
Bloomberg said in a joint statement between MP Materials and Sumimoto that “this contract will stabilize, diversify, and strengthen the core supply chain that is important to the Japanese manufacturing sector.” Policy efforts are being made to avoid monopolizing the global rare earth market, which is essential for weapons, and the United States has considered stable rare earth supply chains as a major security issue.”
Yomiuri said, "President Yoon seems to have judged that it is essential to resolve the issue of requisitioned workers at an early stage in order to strengthen Japan-Korea and Japan-US-Korea relations amid the advancement of North Korea's nuclear and missile technology." pointed out as a major factor.
The conscription company, Japan's flagship military industry, is expected to start selling new weapons in earnest in the international arms market with the support of the Korean government.
South Korea's European rearmament attempts are focused on the F-16 fighter design, which the US discontinues by 2024, and 155mm supplies that lag behind in productivity, such as self-propelled artillery and artillery shells, in part-based replica variants.
In addition, each country supports its own production.
Japan's Mitsubishi officially announced in December of last year that it would lead a cooperation system with high-performance radar unmanned aerial vehicles and artificial satellites through joint development of the next-generation stealth fighter F2 fighter with British and Italian defense companies.
At the working-level meeting of the three countries at the time, the Japanese cabinet officially announced the joint development of a next-generation fighter led by Japan in 2035, a joint venture between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, British defense company BAE Systems, and Italian aerospace and defense company Leonardo.
In Japan's industrial production index last year, 5 out of 15 industries rose, with aircraft parts production leading the way and the transportation machinery industry strong.
Japan's arms augmentation is a new missile system, in which Mitsubishi is leading the development of three long-range missiles, purchases of interceptor missiles for ballistic missile defense, purchases of attack reconnaissance drones, satellite communications equipment, Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter jets, helicopters, submarines and warships. This included the purchase of large transport aircraft.
<Automobile Korea plunges Japan rises, production declines inventory increases, dated March 31, 2022. See Japan's Arms Buildup, Military Cooperation with Taiwan, North Korea's Ballistic Missile Competition, December 18>
There are many similar lawsuits pending in Korean courts, and if the plaintiff's victory is confirmed in the future, the lawsuit will actually be turned against the Korean government, including the payment of compensation by the foundation on behalf of the Japanese company that became the defendant.