The New Cold War Is Sending Tremors through Northeast Asia This is the 76th Dossier of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. It was produced in collaboration with the International Strategy Center (ISC) in Seoul, South Korea, and written by Dae-Han Song. On 18 August 2023, the heads of state of the United States, Japan, and South Korea gathered for a historic summit at Camp David. At the secluded US presidential retreat in Frederick County, Maryland, the three leaders announced a new agreement for ‘trilateral security cooperation’ in Northeast Asia, aimed principally at containing the rise of China. ‘Washington’s previous efforts to create such a pact were unable to overcome the frayed relations between Japan and South Korea that stem from the legacy of Japanese colonialism. But this time, to pave the way for this military bloc, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol excused Japan from paying reparations for its colonial and war crimes. The US-led New Cold War against China is destabilizing Northeast Asia along the region’s historic fault lines as part of a broader militarization campaign that extends from Japan and South Korea, through the Taiwan Strait and the Philippines, all the way to Australia and the Pacific Islands. Backed by Washington, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has accelerated his country’s rearmament, aiming to double military spending by 2027 and acquiring long-range missiles to strike enemy targets. Meanwhile, Korea’s peace process has been derailed as the US expands its power projection in the region. Although North Korea has often been touted as the reason for increased militarisation, this has always been a fig leaf for US containment strategies – first against the Soviet Union and today against China. In fact, the ‘old’ Cold War never ended in Northeast Asia, its embers still burning in the Korean Peninsula and in the Taiwan Strait. Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union and the integration of China into the global economy, the US network of bilateral military alliances that was created after World War II has kept the region divided. At the same time, alongside these fault lines of conflict, countervailing movements are fighting for peace, ecological survival, and people’s well-being across Northeast Asia, from the Okinawa Islands to the buzzing metropolis of Seoul. To build a future of peace and cooperation, it is necessary to stop the US-led New Cold War and dismantle the system of bilateral alliances that have impeded justice and reconciliation in the region for over 70 years. Read Full Dossier here (ENG / ESPAÑOL / PORTUGUÊS)도시에 전문 읽기