According to sources, the UNC is seeking to include Japan as one of the UNC‘s „sending states,“ a move likely to inflame public sentiment in South Korea amid renewed historical tensions with Tokyo.

Should Japan obtain the membership, it would pave the way for its military involvement in the event of an armed conflict on the Korean peninsula — a scenario unthinkable for many Koreans who harbor grievances stemming from Japan‘s 1910-45 colonial rule.