The US trivializes the South Korea - Japan dispute as a negotiating technique.

White House indifference to the South Korea - Japan dispute is part of the transactional/coercive technique of this administration. The White House loathes the progressive Moon Jae In democratic party government of South Korea. The US defense interests want to increase South Korean payments to the US for defense costs by a factor of five, increase ROK commitments to out of area Indo-Pacific operations; deploy intermediate range ballistic missiles and more THAAD launchers in South Korea; and have South Korea buy into an integrated Aegis air defense system in the region with US and Japanese forces. Unlikely to get much cooperation on these issues from the progressive Moon government, weakening and destabilizing the Moon administration in tacit alliance with the right wing "make Japan great again" Abe government is the chosen path.

It is interesting that US "experts" refer to the situation as "spat" and "tit for tat," trivializing the dispute. The South Korean perspective is that they will no longer tolerate Japanese interference in internal South Korean affairs facilitated by prior South Korean right wing dictatorships and their progeny no matter what the US demands.