South Korea, the US and Japan will sign their first-ever trilateral intelligence-sharing pact next week to better cope with North Korea’s increasing nuclear and missile threats, Seoul officials said yesterday.
The US has separate, bilateral intelligence-sharing agreements with South Korea and Japan, both US allies that are hosts to tens of thousands of US troops.
However, Seoul and Japan do not have such bilateral pacts amid long-running history disputes stemming from Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Photo: EPA
In 2012, the two almost forged their first-ever intelligence-sharing pact, but its signing was scrapped at the last minute due to public backlash in South Korea.
Under the trilateral pact, South Korea and Japan would share intelligence — only on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs — via the US, according to a statement by the South Korean Ministry of Defense.
The pact would enable the three countries to swiftly respond to any North Korean provocation at a time when its threats are growing following its third nuclear test in February last year, the statement said.
The use of Japanese intelligence assets would boost surveillance on North Korea, it added.
The formal signing of the pact by the South Korean vice minister of defense and his US and Japanese counterparts will take place on Monday, according to South Korean defense officials.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950 to 1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
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