The US, Japan and South Korea break bread


US President Joe Biden will welcome Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to the storied Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains today (Friday).

Relations between the two US allies have been fraught for over a century, with Japan occupying Korea from 1910 to 1945. And their recent disputes have thwarted US efforts to foster unity in an increasingly volatile region.

But Yoon and Kishida, who took office months apart, have shown a willingness to try again. And that’s where Camp David comes in: using its gravitas to put a floor under Japan-Korea ties and try to rebuild from there.

So today, the three leaders will announce initiatives to deepen their defence, tech and economic cooperation (plus probably make the summit an annual affair).

But it all feels more like a new beginning than a culmination.

Intrigue’s take: We focus on geopolitics more than politics, but this is one of those reminders of how much each shapes the other.

Japanese and Korean leaders often pay a political price at home for reaching out too far abroad. But evidently, Yoon and Kishida feel they now have enough political cover to keep going. This cover comes partly:

  • 🇯🇵🇰🇷 From each other, through reciprocal visits this year
  • 🇺🇸 From the US, through state visits and today’s Camp David summit, but also (and unwittingly)
  • 🇨🇳🇷🇺🇰🇵 From China, Russia and North Korea, which have each now spooked Korean and Japanese voters alike.

Of course, future elections could unwind whatever’s announced today. But the gravitas of a Camp David summit imposes a political cost on doing so.

Diplomacy is at its most effective when it finds a way to align the politics and the geopolitics. And that’s what’s being attempted at Camp David today.

Also worth noting:

  • South Korean intel suggests North Korea will register its opposition to today’s summit via a missile test in coming days. For its part, China said it opposes “countries forming various cliques”.
  • Former US President Obama brokered a meeting between then Japanese PM Abe and Korean President Park in Washington in 2016.
Latest Author Articles
Intrigue in paradise: Cook Islands edition

There’s trouble a-brewin’ in a tiny corner of the South Pacific, so let’s get you up to speed. This one takes us to the Cook Islands: a stunning Polynesian archipelago (pop. 15,000) in ‘free association’ with New Zealand — that means it runs its own affairs and enters treaties, though its citizens are automatically Kiwis with […]

10 February, 2025
Trump’s tariffs, viewed from four cities

Just as he swore to do, Donald Trump signed new executive actions on Saturday, slapping 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and 10% on China. Energy exports from Canada seem to be the sole major carve-out, copping a 10% tariff instead. Now, before we dive in, here’s a sweet term to slip into conversation: strategic empathy. It’s what […]

3 February, 2025
Did China just dethrone OpenAI?

OpenAI dropped the world’s first-ever ‘reasoning’ AI chatbot back in September, called ‘o1’. The Silicon Valley-based pioneer spent vast amounts of cash and time to release this AI bot that can ‘reason’ its way through more complex problems. And notwithstanding OpenAI’s name and founding philosophy, it again kept its coding secret. But last week, China-based […]

27 January, 2025
What’s next for TikTok?

Ultra-popular short-video platform TikTok went offline for its 170 million users on Saturday night, only to then semi-reappear around noon yesterday (Sunday). Of course, teetering on the edge of oblivion just inspired more memorable TikTok moments, including folks recreating this amusing Family Guy scene where Peter uses his final breath to make a big deathbed confession: “I did not care for […]

20 January, 2025