hankyoreh

President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea (left) and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan hold a joint press conference following their summit in Tokyo on March 16. (Yonhap)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol announced the “complete normalization” of Korea and Japan’s information-sharing agreement, called GSOMIA, in his summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday. The decision, Yoon said, will serve the national interest by helping “the two countries share information about and respond to North Korean nuclear weapon and missile launches and trajectories.”

Considering that GSOMIA has been used not only to respond to North Korea’s nuclear weapon and missile programs but also to counter China, there are growing concerns that the trilateral security cooperation with the US and Japan emphasized by the Yoon administration will end up being a vehicle for carrying out the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy.

Following their meeting at Kishida’s official residence in Tokyo, the two leaders held a joint press conference at which they said that “cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo, as well as between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington, is important for responding to North Korean nuclear and missile threats, which are growing more sophisticated by the day.” Yoon and Kishida also said they had “agreed to actively cooperate going forward.”

Yoon said that one of the specific ways the summit served South Korea’s national interest was “the complete normalization of GSOMIA, which I announced in the summit a short time ago.”

After Japan slapped curbs on exports of semiconductor materials to South Korea, then-President Moon Jae-in retaliated by notifying Japan that it would be pulling out of GSOMIA, which is short for General Security of Military Information Agreement. But the Moon administration ended up suspending the termination in November 2019, under pressure from the US.

In subsequent years, the two countries have continued to exchange necessary information despite GSOMIA’s tenuous legal status.

GSOMIA, which was concluded in November 2016, during the presidency of Park Geun-hye, delineates the protocols for the transfer, storage, disposal, duplication and disclosure of military information.

“Since the status [of GSOMIA] has been ambiguous, formally speaking, [we] are planning to revoke the notification of termination. Our goal is to streamline security cooperation,” a senior official in the presidential office explained on Thursday.

The Yoon administration said that normalizing GSOMIA is a “win-win” for South Korea and Japan, serving both of their national interests. When North Korea launches a ballistic missile, information about its ascent is easier for South Korea to detect, and the splashdown spot is easier for Japan to detect. As a result, sharing information about the trajectory of North Korean missiles can increase the efficacy of both countries’ military response.

The Yoon administration has regarded GSOMIA as a symbol of Korea’s security cooperation with the US and Japan, as well as a military link that can fill in the gaps in the South Korea-US alliance and the US-Japan alliance. It ultimately restored GSOMIA as part of its efforts to improve Korea-Japan relations by proposing a solution to the issue of compensation for victims of forced labor during the Japanese colonial period.

Some say GSOMIA’s normalization clears the way for more military cooperation between South Korea and Japan, since they can now move forward with sharing real-time warnings about North Korean missile launches or reaching an acquisition and cross-servicing agreement.

The US has used GSOMIA not only for monitoring North Korean missile launches but also for tracking military movements by China and Russia.

An acquisition and cross-servicing agreement would enable the South Korean military and the Japan Self-Defense Forces to exchange ammunition, fuel and equipment in the event of a crisis. If cargo planes or vessels from the Japan Self-Defense Forces transported ammunition or fuel to airports or seaports in South Korea, that would amount to Japanese troops setting foot on the Korean Peninsula.

Unless the Yoon administration slows down or scales down its security cooperation with the US and Japan, there are likely to be concerns that Korea is encouraging Japan’s militarization and getting entangled in the US’ containment strategy vis-à-vis China.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]