Seoul could be trying to skirt a domestic backlash by borrowing US credibility in agreement with Japan

South Korea, Japan, and the US are reportedly planning to sign a trilateral intelligence sharing memorandum as early as this year. The agreement would require South Korea to provide Japan with sensitive military information.

Some are seeing the trilateral memorandum as an attempt by the South Korean government to borrow the credibility of the US in order to skirt the domestic backlash to a planned bilateral intelligence agreement between South Korea and Japan that was scrapped in 2012.

“At the moment, South Korea, the US, and Japan are in the middle of working-level discussions about sharing military intelligence with each other, and we have made a substantial amount of progress. However, we have yet to reach a final agreement,” the Ministry of National Defense announced on Dec. 18.

A source at the ministry did not exclude the possibility of the memorandum being signed within the year. “As for whether the agreement will be reached before the end of the year or in the New Year, we’ll have to wait and see how the working-level discussions go,” the source said.

“We’re planning to provide the media with detailed information about the proceedings. We will follow the proceedings and inform the media about the timing of the agreement.”

During the Asia Security Summit, also called the Shangri-La Dialogue, in May, the defense ministers of South Korea, the US, and Japan agreed to initiate working-level discussions about ways to share military intelligence in regard to the threat posed by North Korean nuclear weapons and missiles.

During the 46th Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Oct. 2014, the South Korean Defense Minister and the US Defense Secretary reaffirmed the importance of the three countries sharing information about these threats.

On the same day, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper reported that negotiators from the three countries had reached the final stage of discussion to pass the memorandum. Taking into account the strong opposition in South Korea to a bilateral intelligence sharing agreement with Japan, the negotiators are planning to adopt the format of a memorandum instead of an agreement, which would have legal force, and to limit the scope of intelligence sharing to North Korean nuclear weapons and missiles.

In May 2012, former President Lee Myung-bak tried to secretly pass the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), a formal military pact with Japan, but gave up because of public opposition to the pact.

More specifically, the memorandum is expected to contain a promise to take appropriate care of the classified information provided by the other two countries.

“If this intelligence is leaked, it will be regarded as a violation of the military intelligence protection agreements that South Korea and Japan have with the US and the offending country could incur stiff penalties,” said a source at the Japanese Defense Ministry.

A long-standing security goal of Japanese policy makers has been to acquire military intelligence about North Korea from the South Korean government, which is highly capable of gathering intelligence about the North.

“If this memorandum is signed, it will help Japan strengthen its ability to defend against ballistic missile attacks,” the newspaper said

One variable here is public opinion inside South Korea. Relations between South Korea and Japan are worse than ever because of historical problems including the comfort women, and there is also widespread distrust about the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which had endorsed the right to collective self-defense.

Since sharing military intelligence between the three countries is related to military cooperation between South Korea and Japan and missile defense, it is also likely to elicit criticism that the memorandum would aid Japan in its plans to become a major military power as well as concern that it would provoke China.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer and Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent

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