I saw this in a movie once.

The Japan Times is reporting that South Korean president Lee Myungbak and Japanese prime minister Aso Taro agreed earlier this month in talks held in Seoul on plans "to cooperate on antipiracy efforts off the coast of Somalia." Both countries will send vessels to the waters off the coast of that lawless failed state, where pirates run amuck and have captured vessels from numerous countries. (I mused about such a possibility here.)

Such pirate problems have been going on through much of this decade, and countries like Japan and South Korea that rely on far-flung waters to feed their respective nations' demand for fish can no longer afford to stand by while these attacks occur. 

I believe that this is a golden opportunity for Japan and South Korea to embark on productive new realms of cooperation that will show these two countries both do better when working together, as well as to show the United States that they are both active partners in the US-led military alliance that has kept Northeast Asia conflict-free for over half a century. Partners willing to carry their own weight. 

One of the big sticking points is that Japan has a self-defense corps, as it is blocked by its pacifist constitution (imposed by the victorious United States but now widely accepted by the Japanese people) and is constrained when it comes to "military operations" away from the home islands. It is a measure of Lee's own mature politicking that he is (so far) not letting his own opposition raise a stink about this pushing of the envelope. 

Still, this move could cause political issues within Japan and the diplomatic issues across East Asia to get rather convoluted, as complex as the plot of a Disney movie about pirates. 

  

[above: South Korea's President Lee (at right) relates to Japan's Prime Minister Aso (at left) how former US President George W. Bush frequently mistook him for the Korean guy on Lost.]