Seoul quits intelligence agreement with Tokyo

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea's presidential Blue House put the blame on Japan on Friday for the termination of the military intelligence-sharing pact between the two neighbors amid the ongoing trade spat and the controversy over historical issues.

Kim Hyun-chong, deputy director of the National Security Office of the Blue House, told a news conference that there was "no longer any justification" to maintain the General Security of Military Information Agreement as it was an agreement to exchange sensitive military intelligence based on "a high level of trust."

Seoul decided on Thursday to end the GSOMIA, which was signed in November 2016 to share military intelligence on nuclear and missile programs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The GSOMIA had been automatically renewed each year in August. If either party wants to scrap the pact, the party will be required to notify the other of its intention 90 days ahead. This year's notification deadline falls on Saturday.

Kim said Japan took "unwarranted economic retaliation" against the ROK while claiming that the ROK top court's ruling on the wartime forced labor victims ran counter to the 1965 treaty and violated international law.

Japan tightened regulations last month on its export to the ROK of three materials vital to manufacture memory chips and display panels, which are the mainstay of the ROK's exports.

Earlier this month, Japan dropped the ROK off its white list of trusted trading partners that are given preferential export procedure. In response, Seoul took Tokyo off its white list of trusted export partners.

Japan's export curbs came in an apparent protest against the ROK top court's ruling that ordered some Japanese companies, including Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries among others, to pay compensation over Korean wartime forced labor.

Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forced by Japan into hard labor without pay during World War II. The Korean Peninsula was colonized by Japan from 1910 to 1945.

Japan claimed that the forced labor issue was settled through the 1965 treaty that normalized diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo after the colonial era, but Seoul said the treaty did not involve individuals' right to compensation.

Kim said the ROK government adhered to the position that "crimes against humanity" perpetrated by the Japanese government and its military had not been resolved through the 1965 treaty.

The Japanese government demanded that the ROK government rectify the top court's ruling, but it was simply unimaginable in the country with the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers guaranteed, Kim added.

Xinhua - AP

(China Daily 08/24/2019 page8)