South Korea Will Normalize Intelligence Deal With Japan

JAKARTA - South Korea (South Korea) is starting a process to normalize the agreement to share military intelligence information with Japan. This follows a summit agreement between leaders of the two countries the previous day.

The South Korean Ministry of Defense said it had sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking for steps to normalize the General Security of Military Information (GSOMIA).

Citing Antara, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is expected to immediately send an official letter to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response, several officials said.

On Thursday, President Yoon Suk Yeol said he agreed to "completely normalize" military pact during his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, as part of efforts to respond better to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

Signed in 2016, GSOMIA was seen as a symbol of the rare security cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo.

In 2019, former President Moon Jae-in's administration decided to stop it in protest over Tokyo's export restrictions on Seoul amid a dispute over Japan's mobilization of Koreans to carry out forced labor during World War II.

The decision was later suspended but caused vulnerability to the legal justification basis for the agreement.