Is Japan more interested in being a ‘Sixth Eye’ than sharing intelligence with South Korea?
- Tokyo has committed to the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) pact between Japan, South Korea and the US
- But as relations with Seoul show no signs of improvement, it is stepping up its campaign to join the US, Britain and others in the exclusive Five Eyes group
A permanent seat at the Five Eyes’ top table – and access to the highest levels of intelligence from the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – would go a long way to help Japan reduce the fallout from worsening ties with South Korea over historical issues and trade tensions.
Seoul has tacitly confirmed it will renew GSOMIA, which was first signed in November 2016, after passing the August 24 deadline without informing its partners that it would scrap the pact. Yet the foreign ministry in Seoul still insisted on firing a shot across Tokyo’s bow on Monday, saying it “can terminate GSOMIA at any time”.
Japan responded diplomatically to the warning, with chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga telling a press conference on Monday that “considering the current security environment in the region, it remains important for the agreement to continue to operate stably”.
South Korea threatened to terminate the agreement last year, after Japan restricted exports of chemicals critical to the Korean semiconductor industry in retaliation for a Korean court ruling that a number of wartime forced labourers had the right to seek compensation from Japanese companies.
Seoul later relented, apparently under pressure from Washington, but with a Japanese firm set to appeal the ruling and the outcome certain to provoke more bad feeling – and, possibly, additional retaliatory moves – the GSOMIA may well be in jeopardy.
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“If it was a straight choice between either Five Eyes or GSOMIA, then Five Eyes would be the one that Japan would go for – but it’s not as straightforward as that,” said Garren Mulloy, a professor of international relations at Daito Bunka University and an authority on regional security issues.