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| Defense Minister Han Mim-koo, right, and Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Yasumasa Nagamine sign the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) at the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defense in this Nov. 23, 2016, file photo. Korea Times file |
By Park Ji-won
The row between South Korea and Japan appears to be extending to security, after National Security Office (NSO) chief Chung Eui-yong hinted at the possibility of reviewing the military information-sharing pact with Japan, Thursday.
A senior presidential official on condition of anonymity said Friday that the renewal of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) is one of the options to be considered when handling issues related to Japan.
Regarding the possibility of abolishing the GSOMIA, the official was quoted in English as saying to Yonhap, "We'll be taking an objective look at the GSOMIA qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of the information that we (have) exchanged."
Earlier in the day, another senior Cheong Wa Dae official said it will not link the pact with the Seoul-Tokyo trade feud triggered by a dispute over compensation for forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 occupation of Korea.
Also on the same day, the Ministry of National Defense said it will "remain unchanged" in its stance over GSOMIA, which is set to expire on Aug. 24 after it took effect in 2016.
But four of the five major party leaders, when they jointly met President Moon Jae-in behind closed doors at Cheong Wa Dae, had sought to release a statement containing a phrase on scrapping GSOMIA, releasing a related statement on Thursday, according to Rep. Chung Dong-yong of the Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP).
Chung, one of the four, said the phrase was not included because main opposition Liberty Korea Party Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn was against the idea.
The GSOMIA between Seoul and Tokyo was made in November 2016 to share confidential military intelligence to tackle the North's growing nuclear threat in the region. It is automatically renewed every year unless one side expresses its wishes to annul it 90 days before the end of its contract.
The remarks came amid Japan's criticism of Korea's rejection of its call to form an arbitration panel including a third country by Thursday over the handling of the South Korean Supreme Court's ruling last October ordering Japanese firms to compensate surviving South Korean forced labor victims. Japan has been claiming the issue was settled in the 1965 Seoul-Tokyo agreement.
Japan has imposed trade restrictions against South Korea, seemingly to pressure Korea over the Supreme Court ruling and reposition the country in its diplomatic and security landscape.
Regarding the NSO chief's remarks, the U.S. Department of State swiftly released a comment on the matter Thursday, according to VOA, that says "The ROK-Japan GSOMIA is an important tool in our shared efforts to maintain peace and security in the region and achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea. The United States fully supports the ROK-Japan GSOMIA, which demonstrates the maturity of the bilateral defense relationship and improves our ability to coordinate trilaterally."
Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Ko Min-jung and a senior presidential official corrected Chung's remarks on Thursday saying the government is currently not considering a review of its stance on the GSOMIA and intends to maintain the pact.
However, experts say leveraging Korea's abolition of the GSOMIA as an option to tackle the dispute with Japan is impractical, and may end up tarnishing Korea's reputation in handling security cooperation issues between countries including the U.S.
"The cancellation of the GSOMIA could be a symbolic move to show what South Korea thinks, but it will not have a practical impact to improve the situation when Japan is not entirely dependent on the pact in gathering security information on the Korean Peninsula and East Asian countries," Cha Du-hyeogn, a visiting research fellow at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told The Korea Times, Friday.
Claiming that it is also standing against the Moon Jae-in administration's two-track approach separating diplomacy and other issues, Cha added, "The government should draw a line between diplomacy and trade. It is now making things worse."
Shin Beom-chul, senior analyst at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said "For those emphasizing the importance of the Seoul-U.S.-Japan security cooperation, the review of the GSOMIA is one of the worst-case scenarios. It is simply a mistake for Chung to mention the GSOMIA on the matter."
Meanwhile, regarding the forced labor issue, Kim Hyun-chong, deputy chief of Cheong Wa Dae's national security office, said Friday that Japan violated international laws by exploiting Korean slave labor during World War II.
"It was Japan that initially violated international law by committing a crime against humanity in the form of forced labor," he said.
He also said, "The South Korean government has been having discussions with Japan through diplomatic channels to end the dispute over the forced labor issue. While diplomatic efforts are still being taken to tackle the issue, Japan has unilaterally imposed trade restrictions against South Korea, which is a violation of international law by not abiding by regulations of the World Trade Organization and free trade principles stated in the G20 summit in Osaka."
Earlier that day, the Japanese government expressed "deep regrets" about missing the deadline and the "breaching of international law," releasing a statement by Foreign Minister Kono Taro while summoning South Korean Ambassador to Japan Nam Gwan-pyo to file a complaint against the South Korean government.
Kono claimed in the statement that Japan had settled the forced labor issue under the 1965 agreement. "Japan deeply regrets that, as a consequence, an arbitration board under the agreement referred to on May 20 could not be constituted," he wrote.
Kono urged South Korea again to abide by international law while pledging to "take necessary measures against South Korea."
Regarding the measures including bringing the case to the International Court of Justice, Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters during a regular briefing in Tokyo, Friday, that "We have been considering various measures. I won't comment at the moment on which steps to take at what timing."
Japan is unlikely to take immediate actions over Seoul's rejection of its request to form the panel, but Japanese news outlets say the Japanese government is considering removing South Korea from its "white list" of countries by July 27, which may negatively influence Korea's high-tech industries.
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