Camp David agreements 'not a new NATO,' U.S. envoy says

Philip Goldberg, U.S. ambassador to Korea, right, speaks with the press at the American diplomatic residence in Seoul on Wednesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Deepened security cooperation between Korea, the United States and Japan will never be a NATO-like structure in the region, said Philip Goldberg, the U.S. ambassador to Korea.

“Camp David is not a new NATO,” said Goldberg, speaking with the press in Seoul on Wednesday following the trilateral leaders’ summit in the United States over the weekend.

In their summit, President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida adopted three documents.

One of them, “Commitment to Consult,” states the trio would hold consultations "in an expeditious manner, to coordinate our responses to regional challenges, provocations, and threats affecting our collective interests and security."

“This isn’t a NATO agreement where something is triggered immediately by the force of the commitment to consult,” said the top U.S. envoy in Seoul. “It is rather a cooperative and collaborative step so that the leaders and other members of the government have the ability to interact when there are common threats and provocations that affect the three countries.”

While the document did not spell out the specific threats, it is expected to include North Korea's nuclear and missile threats or other security crises in the Indo-Pacific region.

Goldberg also dismissed the idea of the trilateral security cooperation growing into a security alliance.

“It is not a military alliance,” he said. “We have mutual defense treaties, the United States — with Korea and with Japan.

“But it does set out security cooperation on a trilateral basis that's new and we believe will be enduring — whether if it's through exercises on antimissile defense or in areas of antisubmarine warfare.”

In the meeting with the local media outlets in Seoul, one of his first to be held on the record since he began his post in Seoul last July, Goldberg also mentioned growing skepticism from China regarding the trilateral relationship. Beijing has balked at the trilateral summit statements, calling them “a deliberate attempt to sow discord.”

“Camp David is not aimed at China, but that doesn't mean that the principles that we are articulating with our allies and through trilaterally... don't include principles about freedom of navigation, about economic coercion, something that South Korea suffered after the deployment of the Thaad [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense] battery,” he said.

“Of course, we're concerned about certain aspects of China's activities and those were spelled out in the Camp David documents.”

One of the documents, “Camp David Principles,” highlighted peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait “as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the international community.”

Goldberg praised Yoon and his government for taking the first steps to collaborate further with Japan in the region.

Yoon’s speech on last year’s Liberation Day, where he highlighted likeminded values between Japan and Korea, “unleased a whole process,” he said, including the leaders’ visits, re-establishment of the Gsomia military intelligence pact between the two countries, and reinstating of Korea on Japan’s white list of preferred trading partners.

He also acknowledged that the latest rapprochement between Japan and Korea is not about “ignoring all the other issues” such as the ongoing compensation issues of Korean victims of Japanese forced labor.

On the latest news of Japan releasing treated radioactive water into the sea this week, Goldberg stressed that the U.S. and Korean positions on the issue "align."

"We're satisfied that Japan has followed the internationally accepted scientific process for the release of the Fukushima water," he said.

The envoy condemned the latest revelations of arms trading between Russia and North Korea.

“What Russia appears to be doing with the DPRK is not just a violation of the very resolutions it voted for but is dealing in weaponry and discussions of military cooperation with a regime that has flouted every aspect of international rule of law,” said Goldberg, referring to North Korea by the acronym of its full name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The door is still open for negotiations for the North, he stressed, however, as long as the regime is willing to return to talks.

BY ESTHER CHUNG, JOINT PRESS CORPS [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]