A year after the Camp David Statement, a national security expert highlighted the importance of South Korea and Japan enhancing their cybersecurity relationship, a state of affairs that could prove pivotal to the long-term success of the historic summit.
On August 18, 2023, United States President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, and Japanese Premier Fumio Kishida met at Camp David to address North Korea’s illicit cyber activities and discuss the steps that would be necessary to combat them. A year later, on July 17, security experts convened at the 10th annual Cyber National Strategy Forum in Seoul to assess the progress the three nations have made in meeting their stated aims.
Go Myong-hyun, director of the Hybrid Threat Research Center at the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), raised concerns about the relationship between South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. Both South Korea and Japan have active cybersecurity partnerships with the U.S., such as the South Korea-U.S. Strategic Cyber Security Cooperation Framework (SCCF) announced in April 2023, and the nine sessions of the Japan-U.S. Cyber Dialogue. However, the relationship between South Korea and Japan regarding the Camp David Statement has been largely nonreciprocating. The director said that improving cybersecurity cooperation is crucial for strengthening the relationship between South Korea and Japan.
The Camp David statement—which has become known as The Spirit of Camp David—includes provisions for discussing and coordinating efforts to counter disinformation. This has prompted North Korea, China, and Russia to spread disinformation even more actively. Such activities are especially concerning because they can very easily sway the results of high-stake national elections. The director further mentioned that disinformation is a major threat to national security. Therefore, South Korea and Japan need to collaborate more closely in their bilateral response to disinformation campaigns emanating from hostile foreign governments.
In addition, Go stated that South Korea and Japan should share resources to build robust Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructures for data security. He highlighted the importance of cooperating on the construction of submarine communication cables to protect the data network in the Indo-Pacific region, excluding China. This effort is part of the broader initiative to build quality infrastructure and resilient supply chains through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), as mentioned in the Camp David Statement.
Go emphasized that these issues should be addressed through cooperative talks between the two countries, ideally through the establishment of a high-level security dialogue. Additionally, he suggested that they focus on discussing North Korea’s illicit cyber activities and identifying new agendas for collaborating on responses to cyber threats.
The Director said that both countries already possess advanced cybersecurity technology and share common ground on cyber threats, making bilateral cooperation likely to succeed and endure.
“The success of Camp David depends on developing the relationship between South Korea and Japan,” said the director. “Cybersecurity will pave the way for enhanced cooperation among South Korea, the U.S., and Japan.”
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South Korea, the United States, and Japan will launch a high-level cyber consultative group to jointly respond to global cyber threats, according to South Korea’s presidential office on Monday.
The establishment of the trilateral body occurred following the Camp David agreement reached in August, a concord in which the three nations agreed to create a working group to deter North Korean cyber threats.
In the meeting in Washington D.C. on October 31, Yin Sung-hwan, South Korea’s Second Deputy Director of National Security, Anne Neuberger, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technologies, and Ichikawa Keiichi, Japan’s Deputy National Security Adviser, took part as national representatives.
The security leaders agreed to hold quarterly meetings, mainly focused on strengthening joint capabilities in response to global cyber threats, such as blocking North Korean cyber activities which are the main money pipeline for the rogue nation’s nuclear weapons development program, the Office of the President of South Korea announced in a statement. READ MORE
