S. Korea to stop sharing intelligence with Japan
Print Edition
SOUTH Korea will stop exchanging classified intelligence on DPRK with Japan amid a bitter trade dispute, an official said yesterday, a surprise announcement that is likely to set back US efforts to bolster security cooperation with two of its most important allies in the Asian region.
South Korea’s decision to cancel the intelligence-sharing pact will also further aggravate its ties with Japan, which are already at their lowest point since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1965.
Many experts had predicted that South Korea would be unlikely to spike the 3-year-old intelligence-sharing deal for the sake of its relations with the United States.
South Korea has been seeking US help in resolving the trade dispute, and Seoul and Washington have also been working together to restart stalled talks on stripping DPRK of its nuclear weapons.
South Korea’s presidential office said it terminated the intelligence deal because Japan’s recent decision to downgrade South Korea’s trade status caused a “grave” change in security cooperation between the countries.
Extremely regrettable
“Under this situation, the government has determined that maintaining the agreement, which was signed for the purpose of exchanging sensitive military intelligence on security, does not serve our national interests,” Kim You-geun, the deputy director of South Korea’s presidential national security office, said in a nationally televised statement.
He said South Korea will formally notify Japan of its decision before Saturday, the deadline for an extension of the pact for another year.
Japan’s foreign minister said yesterday that Tokyo “strongly” protested against South Korea’s decision to scrap the pact, calling the move “extremely regrettable.”
“I have to say the decision to end the pact by the South Korean government is a complete misjudgement of the current regional security environment and it is extremely regrettable,” Taro Kono said in a statement.
“We cannot accept the claims by the South Korean side and we will strongly protest against the South Korean government,” Kono said, adding that Tokyo had summoned the South Korean ambassador.
The pact was signed in November 2016 in response to Pyongyang’s missile launches and nuclear tests, to better coordinate the gathering of information about the reclusive state.
It was the latest in a series of tit-for-tat measures that began with a run of South Korean court rulings against Japanese firms, requiring them to pay for forced labor during World War II.
The diplomatic spat has bled through into the trading relationship between the two high-tech economies, with both removing each other from a list of trusted trading partners.
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