'Tokyo didn't ask for GSOMIA report on N. Korea launches'

A projectile is fired from a purported super-large multiple rocket launcher during a test-launch supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Thursday. / Yonhap

By Yi Whan-woo

Japan didn’t ask South Korea to share information it collected on North Korea’s purported testing of a super-large multiple rocket launcher which fired projectiles into the East Sea, Thursday, an official of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said, Friday.

Tokyo is entitled to obtain information from Seoul over North Korea’s missile provocations if it requests it under the Seoul-Tokyo bilateral intel-sharing pact, known as GSOMIA. South Korea decided to “conditionally” renew the pact at the very last minute before its official expiration on Nov. 22.

“I’d say Tokyo is trying to show it wasn’t missing anything in terms of the security partnership with Seoul,” a DPK official said. The official added Tokyo was aiming to get the “upper hand” in the next round of negotiations with Seoul over its retaliatory trade measures taken against South Korea in July and August.

Despite questions over its effectiveness, GSOMIA was seen by many military experts as beneficial to both South Korea and Japan.

It was also seen as critical to enhancing the three-way security alliance with the United States, and helping implement U.S. security strategy in the Indo-Pacific region.

The U.S. had not concealed its dissatisfaction toward the South and pressed it to renew the pact. With Seoul deciding to keep the GSOMIA for now, it was seen as putting the ball in Japan’s court to make progress in untangling bilateral ties.

Stronger Washington-Seoul alliance, Japan’s own way

Government officials said security cooperation between Seoul and Washington regarding North Korea’s military provocations was solid. Washington and Seoul intelligence authorities said they have been closely monitoring Pyongyang’s military activities using surveillance assets.

For instance, the U.S. Navy’s EP-3E multi-intelligence reconnaissance plane and the U.S. Air Force’s E-8C spy planes respectively flew over the Korean Peninsula, Thursday.

The EP-3E is capable of detecting North Korea’s surface-to-surface missiles, transporter erector launcher (TEL) vehicles, submarines and other key military assets from nine to 12 kilometers above. The E-8C carries out surveillance missions whenever North Korea tests medium- and long-range ballistic missiles.

“This shows the South Korea-U.S. security alliance has not been shaken by the GSOMIA dispute,” Kim Hyun-wook, a Korea National Diplomatic Academy professor, said.

He shrugged off concerns the GSOMIA dispute had widened rifts in the Seoul-Washington alliance.

Regarding North Korea’s test-firing, the Japanese Coast Guard independently detected it four minutes after two projectiles from a super-large multiple rocket launcher were fired from Yeonpo in eastern South Hamgyong Province into the East Sea at around 4:59 p.m.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) detected the firing five minutes afterwards.

The JCS said each projectile was fired within a 30-second interval. They flew around 380 kilometers and reached a maximum altitude of around 97 kilometers.

Thursday’s launches followed North Korea’s artillery firing drills on Changrin Islet just north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) on Nov. 23. The drills were in violation of the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) reached last year as part of peace-building efforts, and the South lodged a strong complaint, Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) speculated North Korea is ratcheting up its provocations as a “reminder” of the North’s leader Kim Jong-un’s year-end deadline for the restart of nuclear talks with the U.S.

“North Korea apparently intended to give a warning message to the U.S. and South Korea that it can return to the past if it fails to achieve its goal from dialogue with Washington by the end of this year,” the NIS told lawmakers in a session of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee at the National Assembly.

The test-firing coincided with the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, and took place one day before the second anniversary of the North’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.

Pyongyang has been against Washington’s demand for denuclearization in advance before sanctions relief.