SEOUL: South
Korea said yesterday it will scrap an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, a
decision that could escalate a dispute over history and trade and undercut
security cooperation on North Korea. With the decision not to extend the pact,
the political and trade disputes between South Korea and Japan now extend into
some of the most sensitive national security issues in the region.

The arrangement
was designed to share information on the threat posed by North Korea's missile
and nuclear activities. The decision to end it comes after North Korea launched
a series of short-range ballistic missiles in protest against what it sees as
military build-ups in South Korea and Japan.

The General
Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) was due to be automatically
renewed on Saturday, unless either side decided to cancel it. The decision was
announced after an hour-long discussion within the presidential National
Security Council (NSC). South Korean President Moon Jae-in approved it. Japan
created a "grave change" in the environment for bilateral security
cooperation by removing South Korea's fast-track export status, said Kim
You-geun, a deputy director of the NSC.

Japan cited
security concerns without providing specific evidence for its decision on South
Korea's trade status. "Under this situation, we have determined that it
would not serve our national interest to maintain an agreement we signed with
the aim of exchanging military information which is sensitive to
security," Kim told a news conference. Japan protested against South
Korea's decision, the Japanese national broadcaster NHK reported.

Before the
announcement, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the
deal bolstered security cooperation between the two countries. "Although
ties between Japan and South Korea are in a very tough situation, we believe we
should cooperate with South Korea where cooperation is necessary," Suga
told a regular news conference earlier. This week the foreign ministers of the
two countries met outside Beijing and promised to keep talking, but failed to
reach any substantive agreements.

Regional
repercussions

The South Korean
decision is likely to be met with dismay in the United States, which fears
weakened security cooperation. South Korea's won currency extended losses
against the dollar in offshore non-deliverable forward trade, falling by some
0.4% against the dollar in five minutes after the announcement on concern that
trade disputes with Japan could be drawn out.

Intelligence
sharing is key to developing a common defense policy and strategy, and all
three countries are safer when they work together, Pentagon spokesman
Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn said. "We encourage Japan and Korea to
work together to resolve their differences," he said in a statement.
"I hope they can do this quickly." South Korea's foreign minister,
Kang Kyung-wha, emphasized that the decision to end the intelligence pact was
because South Korea had lost trust in Japan.

"We will
continue to strengthen cooperation with the United States and develop the
alliance," she told reporters in Seoul. South Korea's defense ministry
said that regardless of the end of GSOMIA, it would maintain a
"stable" joint defense posture based on a robust alliance with the
United States. One Western military source said the intelligence-sharing was
sometimes limited, but nevertheless an important area of cooperation in the
face of threats from North Korea.

GSOMIA
facilitated the sharing of information on North Korea's nuclear and missile
threats, which remain despite a series of summits and negotiations with North
Korea, said Cho Tae-yong, a former South Korean national security adviser who
worked on the deal when it was first signed. "Ending GSOMIA is not only
the wrong card to play to press Japan, but it is just not helpful for our
security," he said. Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute
for Policy Studies in Seoul, agreed.

"There's a
lot more for us to lose than to gain," he said. "It would increase
our own security concerns and inflict diplomatic isolation upon ourselves by
destroying the foundation of trilateral security cooperation with the United
States." The US envoy on North Korea, Stephen Biegun, raised the issue
during a meeting with South Korea's deputy national security adviser, Kim
Hyun-chong, before the NSC gathering. The decision comes as China and Russia
have been more assertive in the region, flying their first joint military air
patrol together in July, which triggered an international incident with South
Korea and Japan.

Bitter history

Before the
signing of the agreement in 2016, under US pressure, South Korea and Japan
shared intelligence through the United States. South Korea went ahead with the
deal at the time despite opposition from some political parties and a large
section of the public, who remain bitter over Japan's actions during its
colonial rule of Korea from 1910 until the end of World War Two.

A 2012 attempt to
seal the deal fell apart in the face of opposition in South Korea toward
military cooperation with Japan. Relations between the two US allies are seen
at their lowest since they normalized ties in 1965, plagued by bitterness over
Japan's occupation, which included the use of South Korean forced labor at some
Japanese firms.

South Korea had
warned it could reconsider the GSOMIA after Japan imposed export curbs on some
materials vital to South Korean chipmakers and stripped South Korea of
fast-track export status. South Korea called the Japanese action retaliation
for a South Korean Supreme Court order for Japanese companies to compensate
some of their wartime forced laborers last October. Japan condemned the ruling,
saying the matter was resolved by a 1965 treaty normalizing ties. Japan cited
unspecified security reasons for the export controls. - Reuters