Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-baek and Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi on the 30th agreed to resume, after nine years, the maritime search and rescue exercise (SAREX) between the Korea Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.
The Ministry of National Defense said that a South Korea-Japan defense ministers' meeting was held that day at the Maritime Staff Office (equivalent to the Navy Operations Command) in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and that this decision was released. In a joint press statement issued after the talks, the South Korea-Japan defense ministers said, "We will conduct a search and rescue exercise for humanitarian purposes between the Republic of Korea Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force."
The South Korea-Japan search and rescue exercise is a combined drill in which the two countries' ships are dispatched to rehearse joint response procedures when a maritime distress accident occurs near the Korean Peninsula. It began in 1999 and had been conducted every other year. However, it was cut off after a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel failed to participate in the international fleet review held in Jeju in 2018 amid controversy over flying the "Rising Sun flag," and, in the same year, a controversy erupted between the Korea Navy and a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force patrol aircraft over "radar illumination–low-altitude threatening flight."
Earlier, the two countries initially sought to resume the search and rescue exercise in Nov. last year, but it fell through when in-flight refueling support in Japan for the Black Eagles, the Korea Air Force's special flight team, was canceled. At the time, Japan refused refueling support citing the Black Eagles' training flights near Dokdo, and as a result, South Korea-Japan defense exchanges were suspended across the board.
However, following a phone call between Minister Ahn and Minister Koizumi on the 26th of last month, refueling support in Japan for the Black Eagles was arranged, creating momentum to resume South Korea-Japan defense exchanges. In their meeting that day, the two ministers agreed that it is important to promote South Korea-Japan defense cooperation and exchanges in a stable manner, and decided to conduct reciprocal visits and defense ministerial talks every year and to strengthen communication between the defense authorities.