美国国防部长盖茨说，韩国有权对朝鲜发动的新袭击进行报复，但他正在争取使韩国不必进行报复。在这次亚洲3国之行第2站期间，盖茨星期四在东京会晤日本高层官员后发表了这一评论。盖茨星期五将启程前往首尔。
盖茨在被问到美国是否将反对韩国对朝鲜发动空袭时说，每个国家都有权“在遭到无端袭击时进行自卫”。但他表示，他本星期在中国和日本会谈的重点是“防止再次出现挑衅行为”。自从朝鲜去年11月对韩国延坪岛发动致命炮击以来，美国一直敦促日本在韩国防务上发挥更大的作用。为达到这一目的，日本防卫大臣北泽俊美本星期访问了首尔，讨论日韩两国的军事合作协议。这将是日本1945年结束对朝鲜半岛的殖民统治以来日韩两国首次签订军事合作协议。
日本军力所涉及的范围受到战后保护日本本土宪法的限制。盖茨星期四没有呼吁东京在军事上做得更多。不过他呼吁对美日“兵力态势”进行审核，并且展开更多实际的双边合作。
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says South Korea has a right to retaliate against any new North Korean attack, but that he is trying to make sure that does not become necessary. Gates spoke Thursday in Tokyo, after meetings with top officials in Japan during the second stop on this three-country Asian tour. He travels Friday to Seoul.
Asked whether the United States would object to South Korean air strikes into the North, Gates said every country has a right to “defend itself against an unprovoked attack.” But he said the focus of his talks this week in China and Japan has been “to prevent another provocation from happening.” The United States has been urging Japan to play a bigger role in South Korea’s defense since North Korea launched a fatal artillery attack on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island in November. To that end, Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa was in Seoul this week to discuss two military cooperation agreements, which would be the first between the two countries since Japanese colonial rule ended in 1945.
Japan’s military reach is limited by its post-war constitution to protecting the Japanese mainland, and Thursday Gates stopped short of calling on Tokyo to do more militarily. But he did call for a review of U.S.-Japanese “force posture,” and for more practical bilateral cooperation.