The month of February was marked by a Japanese public relations blitz, to which DC audiences often responded, “where is South Korea in this strategy?” There was also a South Korean effort to fine tune and, presumably, rally support for a new strategy, which again drew the question, “how does Japan fit into the picture?” At a time when President Obama is preparing to visit Tokyo and Seoul and US officials are desperately seeking a way to reduce the tensions between them while advancing toward a trilateral alliance, a review of the messages coming from Tokyo and Seoul and the responses to them of the think tank community overshadows other themes we could cover in recent seminars. We assess answers to five questions in reporting on the DC scene.

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