Will Seoul, Tokyo discuss military info-sharing again?

By Jun Ji-hye

Will South Korea and Japan once again push for the bilateral agreement to share sensitive military information?

This issue has emerged as one of the major concerns amid growing signs of restoration of the strained relations between the two nations.

The defense chiefs of the two countries met at the end of last month for the first time in four years. In addition, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se visited the neighboring nation from Sunday to Monday to mark the 50th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral ties and meet with his Japanese counterpart.

Tokyo has been pressuring Seoul to resume the suspended discussion on the signing of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) to strengthen their defense capabilities against missile and nuclear threats from North Korea.

Seoul has shown a cautious attitude, however, apparently wary of the public sentiment against its former colonial ruler.

In June 2012, the two were close to the signing the agreement. At the time, the Lee Myung-bak administration pushed for the agreement to enable the two sides to share comprehensive intelligence directly with each other.

But the bilateral intelligence-sharing pact fell through at the last minute owing to fierce public criticism of the government’s secretive handling of negotiations. Since then, little progress has been made in military cooperation between the two countries.

Japan brought the issue to the negotiation table again in late May during the 14th Asia Security Summit, also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, which took place in Singapore.

During the meeting on May 30, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani called on his South Korean counterpart Han Min-koo to review the signing of the GSOMIA.

He also expressed Japan’s willingness to sign the GSOMIA during a news conference on May 21.

“It is very significant for Seoul and Tokyo to sign the bilateral information-sharing agreement, even though the two countries and the United States already signed a trilateral arrangement to share military intelligence,” he told reporters.

In response, Han showed a lukewarm attitude, according to officials. He was quoted as telling Nakatani, “Sufficient conditions need to be created first to begin such a discussion.”

Officials noted that the government believes the trilateral agreement is enough for now, while Japan wants a greater exchange of military information.

The information-sharing pact between the three countries was signed last December amid increasing threats to the East Asian region from the North. It was the first such agreement that enabled Seoul and Tokyo to share military secrets with each other, albeit indirectly. Washington mediates between them in an effort to calm public resistance, which stems from the bitter memory of Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule.

Tokyo’s continuous push for the signing of the GSOMIA was also revealed when it sent a top intelligence police officer for meetings with South Korean intelligence agencies.

According to sources, the officer visited Seoul on June 16 for three days to meet with officials of the National Intelligence Service and the Defense Security Command. Given that the officer had no plans to meet with South Korean police officers, the visit was seen as an apparent attempt to lay the groundwork for the signing, sources said.

The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the visit, which was generally understood as an alternative to the delayed visit of Tadashi Miyagawa, the chief of the intelligence bureau at Japan’s Defense Ministry.

Miyagawa was planning to visit Seoul on June 15 for three days to attend the regular bilateral conference to discuss the state of affairs of the communist North and the Northeast Asian region. However, the visit fell through after Tokyo strongly protested against Seoul’s Defense Ministry, which provided information about the visit to the public at its regular briefing on June 2.

At the time, defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok drew the line, saying “The visit is not related to the GSOMIA, and the bilateral conference between the chiefs of the intelligence bureaus has taken place annually.”

He noted on June 15 that the two nations are now rescheduling the meeting of the chiefs of the intelligence bureaus, stressing again that the meeting has nothing to do with the GSOMIA.

Still, speculations abound that Japan already launched efforts to pressure Seoul to sign the agreement.

Now, all eyes are on how Seoul deals with the issue, as it also recognizes the importance of sharing military secrets with Tokyo to more effectively deter the repressive North.

North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, followed by a second one in May 2009 and a third one in February 2013, speeding up its efforts to develop strategic nuclear weapons.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has recently escalated as well following the Stalinist state’s test-fire of a submarine-launched ballistic missile on May 9.

At the same time, however, the Korean government needs to consider the public sentiment, as many South Koreans still resent Imperial Japan’s atrocities, such as the sexual enslavement of Korean women for its troops.

“The government will take a transparent stance on the issue, considering the national sentiment,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye