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The issue on whether to share military intelligence between South Korea, Japan and the United States will not be on the agenda of the three-way defense talks scheduled to be held in Washington next week, Seoul's Defense Ministry said Friday.
Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a routine press briefing that sharing intelligence with Japan will not be made possible until conditions are shaped as there remained various issues unresolved between the two countries. He did not elaborate on the conditions in need.
Citing the pending issues, Kim said the issue on the trilateral intelligence sharing will not be on the agenda of the upcoming defense talks.
The sixth round of the Defense Trilateral Talks between the three allies will be held for two days from April 17 in Washington to discuss how to cooperate in nuclear and missiles threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Kim, however, mentioned the need for sharing military intelligence between the three nations to brace for threats from the DPRK's weapons of mass destruction.
The bilateral military intelligence pact between South Korea and Japan, which was pushed for in the past, was the broader range of deal which included intelligence exchanges between the two governments, but the trilateral pact along with the U.S. was to discuss issues limited to the DPRK's nuclear and missile threats, the spokesman said.
Seoul and Tokyo pushed for the bilateral pact to share military intelligence on the DPRK in June 2012, but South Korea put the pact on hold at the last minute amid public uproar at home.
At that time, the Lee Myung-bak administration pushed the pact through without enough public debate for fear of possible opposition from the public.
Amid frayed ties between Seoul and Tokyo, South Korea set its basic policy at turning to the trilateral intelligence-sharing. The military intelligence pact was reached between Seoul and Washington and between Tokyo and Washington, but not between Seoul and Tokyo.
