Philippine and Japanese forces work together during a Kamandag drill at Camp Cape Bojeador in Burgos, Philippines, Oct. 20, 2024. (Shaina Jupiter/U.S. Marine Corps)
South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday denied a report that its marines will participate in joint drills with Japanese forces for the first time at an upcoming multinational exercise in the Philippines.
The clarification came a day after Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers would train alongside South Korean marines during the annual Kamandag exercise in early June.
The purported drill would involve South Korean marines boarding Japanese vessels during a search-and-rescue operation, according to NHK.
The report is inaccurate, a spokesman for South Korea’s defense ministry said Wednesday by text message. The spokesman, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said the ministry has no plans for South Korean marines to drill alongside Japanese troops during Kamandag.
The exercise, hosted by the United States and the Philippines, is scheduled to begin May 26 and run for 12 days across the Philippine archipelago.
South Korean marines secure an area during Kamandag training Zambales, Philippines, Oct. 7, 2022. (Yvonne Iwae/U.S. Marine Corps)
Forces from South Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom are slated to participate in various components of the training, including amphibious landing operations and humanitarian assistance operations, according to a Marine Corps news release this month.
South Korean and Japanese troops have trained at Kamandag before but not together. Historical tensions between the two nations — rooted in Japan’s 35-year colonization of the Korean Peninsula — have long complicated military cooperation.
Those tensions have resurfaced in recent years. In 2022, South Korean lawmakers protested after navy personnel saluted the Rising Run flag at Japan’s International Fleet Review. The following year, a Japanese destroyer flying the same flag entered South Korea’s Busan port for a multinational exercise, drawing renewed criticism.
Although officially used by Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force since 1954, the flag remains a potent symbol of wartime atrocities to many South Koreans.
Despite these frictions, the two countries have taken steps to improve military ties amid shared concerns about North Korea. In 2023, South Korea reinstated a suspended military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, and the nations, alongside the U.S., held their first trilateral aerial drill, including an Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bomber escorted by fighter jets.
The three countries also launched a real-time data-sharing system in December to track North Korean missile launches.
Stars and Stripes reporter Hana Kusumoto contributed to this report.
