South Korea and Japan hold first round of talks on military info sharing agreement

Posted on : 2016-11-02 16:07 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Opposition parties planning opposition to agreement that would draw S. Korea further into US-led three-stage missile defense plan
Members of civic groups hold a press conference in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in central Seoul
Members of civic groups hold a press conference in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in central Seoul

The South Korean and Japanese governments held a first round of section chief-level talks in Tokyo on Nov. 1 toward the signing of a bilateral General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).

The talks came just five days after the South Korean Ministry of National Defense announced plans to push for the agreement once again. While the process is moving quickly, both defense ministries avoided any mention on Nov. 1 of what specifically was discussed.

“Discussions were held on general content based on the agreement text provisionally agreed upon in 2012,” said an official with South Korean ministry.

The same official said the “next discussion schedule will be coordinated with Japan.” The vagueness of the responses contradicts an Oct. 27 boast that the process would be pursued “transparently.”

While the South Korean ministry expressed confidence that it would “move as quickly as possible” because “there is already a draft agreed upon in 2012, and only revisions and additions need to be discussed,” there is still skepticism over whether the signing will actually happen. The main reason is distrust in Seoul’s ability to push its policies now that an ongoing scandal over Park Geun-hye’s involvement with influence-peddler Choi Sun-sil has presidential approval ratings down in the single digits. It’s also the reason the US, which has applied heavy pressure for the agreement, and Japan, which has repeatedly called for its signing, are now observing events in South Korean domestic politics with concern.

Another potential variable is a special law on the protection of state secrets forced through in Dec. 2013 by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The right-wing Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported on Oct. 31 that the Japanese government had “reaffirmed its policy approach of demanding revisions to secrecy classification in the South Korea-US GSOMIA based on its own special state secret protection law.” The claim is that since the law did not exist yet in June 2012, the agreement will have to be revised to reflect its enactment.

With South Korea’s top three opposition parties already pledging to work together to oppose the agreement, experts joined in voicing their objections.

“The key thing is that it advances a trilateral missile defense system that is the second stage in the three-stage missile defense plan developed for the Korean Peninsula by the US,” said Kim Dong-yup, a professor at the Kyungnam University Institute for Far Eastern Studies.

“We can’t expect China to sit around and do nothing if we add this agreement on top of the decision to deploy THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system,” Kim observed.

Critics are also taking aim at Park’s own contradiction on the issue. In June 2012, then-President Lee Myung-bak (2008-2013) attempted to sign the agreement in secret, only to back out just a few hours before under heavy objections from the South Korean public. At the time, Park responded by saying it was “extremely regrettable that the procedures and process were not handled properly.”

By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent

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