The US-South Korea-Japan wargames offer a glimpse of Washington’s real plan for Asia

The trilateral wargames proceed as planned despite Trump’s earlier snub. How is Washington keeping Seoul hooked? By Konstantin Asmolov, a leading researcher at the Center for Korean Studies at the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of SciencesThe joint military exercises now underway between the United States, South Korea, and Japan are a clear signal that Washington is still moving ahead with the long-term project of building its alliances and partnerships in Asia into a tight military-political structure, despite leadership changes in both the US and South Korea. The current Washington administration, however, isn’t above using political leverage to keep Seoul in line.The joint exercises of South Korea, Japan, and the US became a regular occurrence already under Biden, and they now serve as a kind of answer to the question of how far the course toward building a Washington-Tokyo-Seoul military-political alliance – which was very clearly visible under Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol – is continuing under the new presidents.Many people assumed that if Biden was actively driving this integration and the Washington Declaration had already b...