Missions and operations: Trilateral naval cooperation among Korea-Japan-United States

This article highlights feasible tasks and operations of trilateral naval c ooperation among Korea, Japan and the US, and discusses its implications fo r regional maritime security and stability. The optimal near-term prospect for trilateral naval cooperation in Northeast Asia would be the containment and management of turmoil originating in North Korea. Conducting trilatera l naval cooperation for humanitarian assistance in a Korean contingency wou ld lead to the integration of present MSDF-USN, ROKN-MSDF and ROKN-USN bila teral naval cooperation and to the establishment of a substantial multinati onal security cooperative system among the three countries. Various trilate ral naval operations among the ROKN, MSDF and USN in a Korean contingency p resent possible options for responding rapidly to four situation-driven sce narios, ranging from high-level water space management crises to low-level information-sharing operations. Most importantly, trilateral naval cooperat ion must be designed to mitigate any unintended consequences arising in oth er countries of the region. A successful trilateral naval cooperation, ther efore, should be one that is maximized by meticulous pre-planning on the pa rt of the three countries. Furthermore, the article suggests that missions and operations of trilateral naval cooperation will make a major contributi on to enhancing multinational maritime cooperation efforts in the foreseeab le future.