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South Korean President Moon Jae-in poses for a photograph with Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Koji Tomita and South Korean Foreign Ministry Kang Kyung-wha at the Blue House on Feb. 7. (Blue House photo pool)

As Japan continues to play for time by hesitating to lift export controls against South Korea, some members of the South Korean government are arguing that the two countries’ information-sharing agreement should be terminated as originally planned. Seoul suspended its termination of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) on the condition that the export controls be withdrawn. More specifically, the suspension was predicated on a return to the situation prior to July 1, 2019, which would mean re-adding South Korea to Japan’s white list of preferred trade partners and fully removing all the controls on exports of key materials for the semiconductor industry. So far, Seoul says, Japan’s measures have been inadequate.

On Feb. 12, the South Korean government repeated its request for Japan to remove its export controls on South Korea, emphasizing that its postponement of the GSOMIA termination had been “conditional.”

“Once again, we call upon the Japanese government to quickly repeal the export controls it imposed upon us, in line with the spirit of the bilateral agreement that we reached on Nov. 22, 2019,” said an official with South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For about three months following South Korea’s conditional postponement of the GSOMIA termination, the two countries discussed pressing issues, including the export controls, through various dialogue channels, but Japan hasn’t made any noticeable changes. A director-general-level meeting was held to discuss export management policy on Dec. 16, 2019, but no further talks have been arranged since then.

“We are making improvements to the issues raised by Japan in terms of the export management system, yet Japan has not adopted any visible measures,” a South Korean government official said.

“Japan appears to be dragging things out because of the lack of progress [desired by Tokyo] on the forced labor mobilization issue,” the official suggested.

The Blue House has also reportedly been discussing the questions of how long to wait for a resolution from Japan and whether to once again raise the specter of GSOMIA’s termination. At the time Seoul moved to conditionally postpone the GSOMIA termination on Nov. 22 of last year, it did not set any deadline for Japan to complete its measures to withdraw the export controls. Internally, however, it was suggested that anything longer than three months would be unacceptable -- which would mean the “deadline” comes at the end of this month.

Meeting with reporters on Feb. 12, a Blue House senior official said the “question of whether to end GSOMIA is not really being discussed again.” But behind the scenes, Seoul is reportedly urging Japan to change its stance, sending the message that Tokyo needs to show “good faith” for the postponement of the GSOMIA termination to continue. In a press conference on Feb. 6, Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha said, “We have the right to proceed with the GSOMIA termination at any time, and we plan to exercise that right based on what it is in the national interest.”

Along the same lines, National Security Office Second Deputy Chief Kim Hyun-chong and Secretary for Peace Planning Choi Jong-geon reportedly discussed Japan’s “failure to honor its pledge” with US officials during a recent visit to Washington, DC.

Kang is currently scheduled to attend the Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Feb. 14-16. Observers are looking to the possibility of a meeting between her and Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi for more advanced discussions on the export control issue.

By Kim So-youn and Kim Eun-hyoung, staff reporters

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