What a week! Japanese Prime Minister Koziumi Junichiro is packing bags for another trip to Pyongyang to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The U.S. has announced it’s rotating troops out of South Korea for combat duty in Iraq. Both moves look suspiciously like unilateral acts that shake alliance commitments. That isn’t necessarily so, but a failure by Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul to closely coordinate on these issues guarantees an erosion of the trust that is the foundation of their alliances. Never before has there been such a premium on communication and cooperation between these three governments.