South Korea, Japan Agree Continued Defense Cooperation Including AI

South Korea and Japan's June 28 bilateral defense agreement explicitly naming AI cooperation signals a growing pattern of allied governments embedding AI into bilateral security frameworks. Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back and Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, meeting in Seoul, agreed to "push for greater cooperation in advanced science and technology fields, including AI," according to the joint press statement reported by Yonhap. The visit also covered aerobatic-team exchanges and joint maritime search-and-rescue drills - AI is one explicit plank in a warming bilateral defense relationship, not the headline item. For practitioners, bilateral defense AI commitments of this type typically precede calls for interoperable standards, joint testing protocols, and procurement frameworks that specify safety and explainability requirements.