The “Spirit of Camp David” struggles to survive one year after President Biden hosted the leaders of Japan and South Korea at the historic Maryland retreat in a bid to form a united front against common enemies.

Now all three are seeking, in different ways, to reinforce what amounts to a de facto alliance amid political turmoil in America, impending change in leadership in Japan, and opposition in South Korea. At the tip of the point of defense against North Korea, American and South Korean troops have just opened ten days of joint military exercises, some within several miles of the line between the two Koreas.

Called Ulchi Freedom Shield, the exercises call for most of America’s 28,500 troops in South Korea, complemented by units from America, to interact with about 19,000 South Koreans. They’re “enhancing the allies’ readiness against North Korean provocations across multiple domains,” reports South Korea’ s Yonhap News. “While the allies view this as defensive, North Korea typically denounces such exercises as invasion rehearsals and may respond with weapons tests.” 

It was President Yoon of South Korea who welcomed the revival of the war games almost immediately after his election in 2022 as the successor to the left-leaning president, Moon Jae-in. President Trump had canceled them right after his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in Singapore in June 2018.

Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Moon hoped the gesture would encourage Mr. Kim to give up his nuclear program and come to viable terms with South Korea.

South Koreans, however, are not really worried about the threat posed by the North and at odds on how to respond. Mr. Yoon called for “methods to block division and raise people’s resolve to resist,” warning, “Anti-state forces that threaten the free democracy are operating covertly in various places.”

The message was clear: the conservative Mr. Yoon, burdened with perpetually low opinion ratings, faces slow-boiling opposition from the liberal Minju or Democratic Party, which he defeated by an eyelash for a five-year term in 2022. Increasingly, leftists are calling for his impeachment, something that could happen in a system that impeached a conservative president in 2016.

Nor are the South Korean and Japanese leaders all that friendly despite Mr. Biden’s success in bringing them together. Seoul protested strongly against Mr. Kishida ‘s recent pilgrimage to Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine honoring the millions of Japanese who have died in war.

The bitterness of Seoul’s protest showed why Japan and South Korea can never form a real alliance despite all the upbeat declarations and assurances at Camp David. It’s the prospect of a change in leadership, and perhaps basic policy, at Washington when the next president is inaugurated in January that most concerns policy-makers at Seoul and Tokyo.