South Korea and Japan agree to pursue AI and unmanned-system defense exchanges

South Korea and Japan agreed during talks in Tokyo to pursue defense exchanges involving artificial intelligence and unmanned systems, South Korea’s defense ministry said on October 9, 2026, according to Yonhap. The officials also reaffirmed cooperation over North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, adding a technology focus to an agenda that already includes missile-warning data sharing and military exercises.

South Korean Vice Defense Minister Lee Doo-hee met his Japanese counterpart, Atsushi Ando, during a two-day visit beginning October 8. Yonhap reported that Lee also paid a courtesy call on Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi before meeting Ando. The report does not specify which day the Lee–Ando talks took place.

Ando invited Lee to Japan after making two visits to Seoul earlier this year: one in May for the countries’ security policy consultations and another in September for the Seoul Defense Dialogue. The Tokyo visit continued that sequence of senior defense contacts, according to the ministry account carried by Yonhap.

What the Tokyo talks established

Lee and Ando reaffirmed the importance of close coordination between their countries and among South Korea, the United States and Japan. South Korea’s ministry described North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats as evolving, and placed the discussions in what it called a rapidly changing international security environment and a grave security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The Yonhap report identifies no project budget, procurement contract, participating company or specific unmanned platform. It also gives no implementation deadline. Those omissions leave the practical scope of the proposed exchanges unclear, including what the two defense establishments would develop or share.

Missile-warning cooperation dates to 2023

The technology discussions follow earlier, separately announced security arrangements. In a December 19, 2023 joint statement, the United States, Japan and South Korea announced that they had fully activated a mechanism for sharing North Korean missile-warning data in real time. That activation predates the latest Tokyo talks.

The three governments said tests had verified the mechanism’s full operational capability. They described its purpose as improving their ability to detect and assess North Korean missile launches together in real time, helping protect their populations. These were official capability claims made in 2023, rather than a new assessment of performance in October 2026.

The same statement announced a multiyear trilateral exercise plan scheduled to begin in early 2024. Its stated aim was to make exercises regular and conduct them more systematically. The governments linked these initiatives to the 2023 Camp David summit and the 2022 Phnom Penh summit, placing them within an established cooperation agenda.

The framework agreed in Japan in 2024

On July 28, 2024, Japan hosted a trilateral ministerial meeting involving then Japanese Defense Minister Kihara Minoru, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik. Japan’s defense ministry said the ministers signed a memorandum on a Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework intended to institutionalize cooperation.

That ministry account identified senior-level policy consultations, real-time missile-warning data sharing and trilateral exercises as activities the ministers intended to continue. It also recorded their assessment that the first multidomain trilateral exercise, Freedom Edge, had been successful. The statement provided the ministers’ judgment, without an independent measurement of military effectiveness.

Technology exchanges still lack implementation details

The October announcement therefore adds an agreement to pursue AI and unmanned-system exchanges to previously documented defense cooperation. Its current meeting details come from South Korea’s ministry through Yonhap; the earlier Japanese and joint statements establish the history of that cooperation. The timing, funding and technical scope of the proposed exchanges remain unspecified in the October report.