Moon hints at terminating GSOMIA
Protesters stage a rally against the U.S. in front of the foreign ministry in Seoul, Nov. 6. AP-Yonhap
By Kim Yoo-chul
By Kim Yoo-chul
President Moon Jae-in hinted at officially terminating an intel-sharing pact with Japan unless Tokyo withdraws its earlier decision to remove Seoul from its list of most trusted business partners, an official at the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), said Monday.
“During Sunday’s dinner meeting with chiefs of the major five political parties at Cheong Wa Dae, President Moon told them Seoul’s earlier decision not to renew the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan was a matter of principle,” a DPK official said, adding DPK Chairman Rep. Lee Hae-chan shared the specifics of the dinner meeting with senior party members.
Regarding questions over any latest updates about Japan’s repeated requests to overturn the South Korean Supreme Court’s ruling last year which ordered Japanese companies to compensate surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor, the President remained firm on his commitment to respect the court’s ruling.
“President Moon asked the party leaders to stand together with one voice regarding the issue of GSOMIA and Japan’s retaliatory export measures,” said the DPK official.
This is the first time the President invited the political leaders to his official working room inside the presidential office. The dinner was arranged as the President wanted to thank them for sending their condolences over the passing of his mother in late October, Cheong Wa Dae said. Over the President’s assessments on these key pending issues, main opposition Liberty Korea Party chief Hwang Kyo-ahn “remained supportive,” the DPK official said.
Ahead of the official ending of the bilateral security cooperation pact, the United States was asking South Korea to renew the agreement and made it clear the GSOMIA issue will be a point of discussion when Defense Secretary Mark Esper meets South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo in Seoul later this week.
On Monday morning, the defense ministry said the government didn’t review any scenarios regarding the extension of the GSOMIA.
“Regarding market talks that the government may pass the deadline of the GSOMIA renewal via agreements with Japan, we have no comments on that,” ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo told reporters in a briefing. “Various scenarios will be reviewed if Japan withdraws its retaliatory trade measures and bilateral relations improve.”
Presidential National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong also told reporters the scrapping the pact will only have a limited impact on South Korea’s national security, but welcomed any intervention from Washington on the matter.
Washington believes the GSOMIA should be maintained as both Seoul and Tokyo are continuing to cooperate with Washington to support joint efforts to counter terrorism and violent extremism in the Indo-Pacific region, including a commitment to the fully verified denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
In this file photo, South Korean protesters pose in Seoul in front of an image of North Korea's Mount Geumgang during a rally, Nov. 6, calling for the resumption of the tourism program. The signs held by the protesters read: “North and South Korean college students want to meet at Mount Geumgang” AP-Yonhap
The President and the participants also shared the view that rival nations stand to benefit the most from any instability in the Korea-Japan-U.S. trilateral alliance, a similar view previously echoed by Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha in statements made at the National Assembly last week that the expiration of GSOMIA may benefit China and Russia.
In a poll conducted by local broadcaster MBC to mark the halfway point in Moon's five-year term, 52.1 percent of poll respondents said the South Korean government should officially end the bilateral security pact as planned, followed by 37.5 percent who said the government should not do so.
Mount Geumgang project
The President and the participants also shared the view that rival nations stand to benefit the most from any instability in the Korea-Japan-U.S. trilateral alliance, a similar view previously echoed by Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha in statements made at the National Assembly last week that the expiration of the GSOMIA may benefit China and Russia.
In a poll conducted by local broadcaster MBC to mark the halfway point in Moon’s five-year term, 52.1 percent of poll respondents said the South Korean government should officially end the bilateral security pact as planned, followed by 37.5 percent who said the government should not do so.
At the dinner meeting, President Moon told the participants Seoul will try to entice Pyongyang back to negotiations on the Mount Geumgang tourism project as the resumption of the economic project is in sync with the level of progress in the denuclearization talks.
“If previous summits between the leaders of North Korea and the United States had come to nothing, then South Korea would have applied some necessary steps (in resuming the Mount Geumgang project). But Washington was asking us to see the right timing over the project as working-level discussions between the United States and the North were underway,” the President was quoted as saying.
In a press conference at the National Press Center, Monday, Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon told reporters National Security Council officials at the White House were strongly against Seoul’s hope for an easing of economic sanctions on cash-strapped North Korea.
“My meetings with White House officials showed that the resumption of the Mount Geumgang project would only come if the denuclearization talks see progress. Other than White House officials, other officials at Washington remained quite flexible,” Governor Choi said in a news conference after wrapping up his three-day trip to Washington, D.C., from Nov. 7 to 9. He said the cumulative losses of the tourism project since its suspension in July 2008 amounted to 1.5 trillion won.
Senior presidential aides said Cheong Wa Dae is keeping an eye on North Korea as a year-end deadline for denuclearization talks set by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un approaches.
A few weeks ago in Stockholm, Sweden, nuclear negotiators between Washington and Pyongyang met, but they walked away with the North blaming the United States for presenting no “new ways” to break the impasse in the process.
South Korea is preparing various “contingency plans” in case the deadline passes without any visible outcome, according to the aides.