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December 31, 2004

I don't recall anyone having mentioned this in the past month, so I thought I'd update you on what's going on with the Coalition of the Willing. You may have heard that the Government of Japan extended the special law allowing Japanese troops to take part in Iraqi operations; the law initially authorizing the Self-Defense Force's deployment to Iraq had been set to expire this month. The move to extend the deployment comes as Japan reaffirms its special security arrangement with the United States, including extended partnership on missile defense, and as Tokyo has formally declared North Korea and China to be security threats.

Now comes South Korea, which as the Washington Post reports has decided to extend its troops' deployment to Iraq. As with Japan, the Republic of Korea's armed forces will only provide non-combat support for the coalition mission. South Korea's deployment makes it the third-largest member of the coalition by number of troops deployed, behind Britain and the United States. Unlike Tokyo, though, Seoul's relationship with the United States has been rocky. To put it bluntly, the South Koreans don't like this administration all this much, and think that the Bush White House has been too reckless and aggressive in their relations with Pyongyang. (Underscoring this point, earlier in the year the South Korean foreign minister used the same language to describe American behavior as the Chinese foreign minister--a strong diplomatic signal.) South Korean President Roh, however, has worked to improve bilateral ties, and this is apparently part of that goal.

Posted by Paul Musgrave at December 31, 2004 03:49 PM

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