South Korea will terminate an intelligence-sharing deal with Japan that focused on classified information about North Korea in a surprise move likely to set back US efforts to bolster security co-operation in the region.
South Korea attributed the decision to its bitter trade dispute with Japan, which has plunged the two countries' relations to their lowest point since they established diplomatic ties in 1965.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono called the decision "extremely regrettable" and summoned the South Korean ambassador to protest the linking of trade and security issues.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono. Source: Getty Images AsiaPac
Many experts had predicted that South Korea would be unlikely to spike the three-year-old intelligence-sharing deal for the sake of its relations with the US.
South Korea has been seeking US help in resolving the trade dispute, and Seoul and Washington have also been working together to restart stalled talks on stripping North Korea of its nuclear weapons.
Seoul and Washington have been collaborating to strip North Korea of its nuclear arsenal. Source: AFP
South Korea's presidential office said on Thursday it terminated the intelligence deal because Japan's recent decision to downgrade South Korea's trade status caused a "grave" change in security co-operation between the countries.
"Under this situation, the government has determined that maintaining the agreement, which was signed for the purpose of exchanging sensitive military intelligence on security, does not serve our national interests," deputy director of South Korea's presidential national security office Kim You-geun said in a nationally televised statement.
He said South Korea would formally notify Japan of its decision before Saturday, the deadline for an extension of the pact for another year.
Japanese Foreign Minister Kono said in a statement that the decision "was an action that completely misjudged the current security environment in the region and is extremely regrettable".
He said South Korea's linking of trade and security was "absolutely unacceptable, and we firmly protest to the South Korean government".
Since early last month, Japan has imposed stricter controls on exports to South Korea of three chemicals essential for manufacturing semiconductors and display screens - key export items for South Korea - and decided to remove South Korea from a list of countries granted preferential trade status.
South Korea accuses Japan of weaponising trade to punish it over a separate dispute linked to Japan's brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Japan denies that, saying its steps were taken because of unspecified security concerns.
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The Pentagon on Thursday expressed "strong concern and disappointment" in the collapse of the agreement.
"We strongly believe that the integrity of our mutual defence and security ties must persist despite frictions in other areas (of the South Korea-Japan relationship)," Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn said.
"We'll continue to pursue bilateral and trilateral defence and security co-operation where possible."
