Minister of Defense Chung Kyung-du shakes hands with U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper as they meet for the first time at the Defense Ministry in Seoul on Aug. 9 to reconfirm the crucial importance of the Korea-U.S. security alliance and close cooperation for denuclearization of North Korea. The new U.S. defense chief visited Seoul on a leg of his Asian tour. (Photo: Ministry of Defense)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, while visiting Japan, asked Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to continue to maintain GSOMIA, an intelligence-sharing pact between Tokyo and Seoul. Abe and Esper met at the Japanese prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo on Aug. 7.

“GSOMIA is key for South Korea, the U.S. and Japan to prevent threats of North Korea. I sincerely hope that the Agreement will stay intact,” said Esper. The U.S. Secretary of Defense also stressed the importance of the agreement in his meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya. Esper, who is due to visit South Korea after his stay in Japan, is reportedly known to urge South Korea and Japan to swiftly resolve conflicts and concentrate on resolving issues in North Korea and Japan.

He also urged Japan to join the Strait of Hormuz Coalition. The minister replied that Japan “wishes to determine in light of stable oil supply and relationship between the U.S. and Japan”.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has urged Japan to consider taking part in a coalition to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Washington has been struggling to secure support for its efforts to counter Iranian activities in the sea lane, through which much of the world’s oil passes.

“Any and every country that has an interest in freedom of navigation and freedom of commerce needs to really consider (being) involved in this type of monitoring of the strait,” he told reporters Aug.. 6, while en route to Tokyo for talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya. “I think it’s something that the Japanese should strongly consider. I’ll be discussing this with them,” he added.

Esper, who is on his first overseas trip since taking office last month, raised the issue in the meeting with Iwaya on Aug. 7, according to a Japanese government source. He did not bring it up with Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.

Iwaya told reporters afterward that he explained Japan would think carefully about what role it can play in safeguarding ships in the Middle East, taking into consideration its oil needs and ties with both Washington and Tehran.

Enthusiasm for the plan among U.S. allies has been mixed. The U.K. and Israel have announced their willingness to participate, while Germany has declined.

In the meeting with Abe at the prime minister’s office, Esper was said to have lambasted China for destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, saying “their military aggression and calculated strategy of predatory economics violates the international rules-based order that we are trying to uphold.”

China is ignoring values such as the international rule of law, freedom of navigation and respect for the sovereignty of other nations, Esper said, adding that Beijing prefers “to coerce its neighbors into activities designed for Beijing’s benefit.” His comments on China came a day after the United States designated the country a currency manipulator, escalating a bilateral row that has played out through tit-for-tat tariffs.

He added that the United States remains committed to the “complete, irreversible and verifiable denuclearization of North Korea” and thanked Japan for its help in enforcing U.N. sanctions against the North.

Abe said the Japan-U.S. security alliance has “never been stronger,” a sentiment Esper echoed, calling it “ironclad” and crucial to a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

The defense chiefs have agreed on the importance of three-way cooperation with South Korea to address threats from North Korea, Iwaya told reporters, including an intelligence-sharing pact between Tokyo and Seoul. That pact is widely seen as being under threat amid growing enmity over trade and wartime history.