Advertisement
Advertisement
Japan
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha. Photo: AP

Seoul extends intelligence-sharing pact GSOMIA with Tokyo, to Washington’s relief

  • Move comes after US pressed its two allies to maintain pact, which would have expired amid sharp deterioration in ties between Japan and South Korea
  • Japan’s Shinzo Abe says South Korea made strategic choice in deciding to stick with agreement, but Seoul warns pact could ‘be terminated at any time’
Japan
South Korea decided on Friday to continue with a critical military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, in a dramatic 11th-hour U-turn that will come as a relief to the US.
The pact was due to expire at midnight amid a sharp deterioration in ties between the two democracies and market economies that has alarmed Washington as it seeks to curb the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea.

But after a flurry of last-ditch diplomacy and just six hours left on the clock, Seoul announced it would “conditionally” suspend the expiry of the agreement.

Kim You-geun, a national security official at Seoul’s presidential Blue House, confirmed that the accord, known as the General Security of Military Agreement (GSOMIA), would not be allowed to lapse at midnight.

Kim also said Seoul decided to halt a complaint it filed with the World Trade Organisation over Japan’s tightened controls on exports of key chemicals that South Korean companies use to make computer chips and displays.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa, before leaving for Japan to attend the G20 foreign ministers meeting, said diplomats from both sides would continue negotiations to work through bilateral differences.

“We will continue efforts to persuade Japan to lift export restrictions while we retain the option to terminate GSOMIA at any time,” she said.

The Japanese government said it had agreed to resume discussions with South Korea on resolving their dispute over the export controls

As Japan-Korea dispute rages on, can Christians make a difference?

Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi stressed the pact was “important”, adding: “Given the current state of security conditions in this region, I believe South Korea made this decision from a strategic standpoint.”

He said officials were working to hold bilateral talks with his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Nagoya.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said South Korea made a strategic choice in deciding to stick with the agreement.

“I stressed the importance of cooperation between Japan and South Korea, and Japan, South Korea and the United States,” Abe said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Photo: EPA

The United States on Friday welcomed South Korea’s decision, calling it a move that “strengthens trilateral cooperation” in the face of regional security challenges.

“This decision sends a positive message that like-minded allies can work through bilateral disputes,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement, apparently referring to historical and trade disputes that have increasingly soured the relationship between Tokyo and Seoul.

“Given our shared regional and global challenges, decisions to strengthen trilateral cooperation are timely and critical,” the statement said.

Seoul had announced the scrapping of the pact in August, as a trade row sparked by historical disputes between the pair spiralled into one of their worst diplomatic spats in years.

Tokyo: Seoul fails to understand North Korea threat with ending of intel pact

Seoul and Tokyo are both major US allies, faced with an overbearing China and wayward North Korea.

But their relationship is heavily coloured by territorial and historical disputes stemming from Japan’s bitterly resented 35-year colonial rule over the peninsula, including the use of wartime sex slaves and forced labour. Tokyo instituted the export controls on Seoul in July, resulting in similar tit-for-tat measures.

The GSOMIA pact, signed in 2016, allows the two US allies to share military secrets, particularly over North Korea’s nuclear and missile capacity.

Washington had frequently urged its two main allies in the region to bury the hatchet, stressing that the only countries to benefit from the row were North Korea and China.

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper reviews the Vietnamese guard of honour during a welcoming ceremony in Hanoi, Vietnam on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

Scrapping the pact would have been “a huge setback for one of the pillars of East Asia’s security that Japan, South Korea and the United States have established”, said Kenichiro Sasae, a former top Japanese foreign minister official and ambassador to the US.

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said on a recent trip to Asia that the only beneficiaries from the pact being scrapped would be North Korea and China, and urged the two allies to “sit down and work through their differences”.

South Korea had promised to continue sharing secrets via the US as a third party, but this had raised concerns about efficiency in an emergency situation.

Chonnam University political science professor Yoon Sung-seok said Seoul’s decision was a tactical move, as allowing the pact to expire would result in Washington applying greater pressure on it to share in the costs of stationing 28,500 US troops and other military assets in South Korea.

From car sales to tourism, trade spat with Korea hits Japan in the pocket

The United States reportedly demanded that South Korea raise its annual contribution fivefold to around US$5 billion.

Reactions from the South Korean public to the continuation of GSOMIA were largely divided, with Moon’s supporters praising the move as “sensible” and “realistic” while his detractors described the move as “capitulation”.

Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies analyst Bong Young-sik said: “This is a loss of face for the Moon government. It was problematic from the beginning for Seoul to link issues of history with security cooperation. South Korea has ended up giving the US the impression that it could be a liability in defence cooperation in the region.”

Additional reporting by Associated Press, Reuters and Kyodo

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Intelligence pact saveD at 11th hour
Post